I was helping my friends kids do a park clean up and one of them found a large wad of cash (less than $200). I told the one who found it that I need to check with the police before she can have it, just in case it belongs to someone in need.
But is that a thing? I didn’t want to say she could keep it right away because I want to set a good example. But it isn’t a ton of money so I assume the police would not be interested. So what do?
If it has no identifiable information the police won’t be able to return it.
Like someone else said, the best way to get it back to its owner is to set up signs saying that you’ve found “something” and that if someone has lost anything in the park around certain date to contact you.
If after a few weeks you haven’t found the owner just let the kid pocket it.
I was about to say the same thing until I thought “well, what if the person who lost it actually goes to the police seeing if it was found?”
It might not be too uncommon if it’s a small town for there to be a lost and found thing there. The small town I grew up in had one.
I am 99% certain the police would just say the cash was probably going to be used for drugs and then they would just take it themselves.
Legally, in most jurisdictions, you report it.
Ethically, if there no ID or any identifiable infomation nearby, its very unlikely for the owner to be found, I think it’s fine to keep it. (If there is an ID, you should give it to the authorities.)
If it were any amount above $1000, I wouldn’t touch it, it could be drug money, don’t want to get caught up in some drug cartel bussiness.
Keep it mind, cops could pocket it. So if you really want to find the owner, you should probably try to find them yourself, at the cost of your time and potentially getting falsely accused of being a thief.
TLDR:
Options:
- Pocket it
- Give it to the authorities
- Find the owner on your own time
- Leave it where you found it
Your choice.
Buy something you like, and then enjoy it.
Share with friends, if pertinent, or you’re just a cool dude
Where do you live? That matters, unless you’re just asking from an ethics perspective. I’m not asking you to dox yourself, country/state is plenty.
Assuming you’re Canadian(based off your instance being lemmy.ca) technically speaking you should report in to the police, and they’ll hold it for 6 months. After that if someone hasn’t claimed it you’re free to claim it yourself. At least in Vancouver. Maybe the laws are different in other parts of Canada. Your local police probably have a non-emergency number for pretty much exactly this purpose if you wanna double check.
Realistically, it’s not even $200. Probably keep it for a week or two and then tell the kid the cops couldn’t find the original owner.
The above is actually similar for the US. If no one lays claim to it, it becomes yours. It’s really hard to prove the source of a wad of cash with no evidence of ownership (like not being in a wallet), so it actually often ends up going to the person who found it.
I assumed. I know it’s similar where I live, but for all I know Montana has some strangely restrictive finders keepers law where if you drop your wallet and someone else finds it you can only legally reclaim it via a duel to the death.
That could be someone’s grocery or bail money.
I would say, put a reasonable effort into finding the owner. If the owner cannot be found, it’s finders keepers.
Key thing about trying to find owners of lost things: You cannot just say ‘is this your $200’. You need to do something more like, ‘I’m trying to find the owner of some lost money’ and if they claim it is theirs, ask them how much it was. This way you filter out grifters.
I would also say going to the police over $200 is well beyond reasonable effort. It just isn’t enough money to justify using their time.
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So then who is the person who lost it supposed to ask if not the police? You expect them to go on some random Facebook group?
This is exactly what the police are for. But if you don’t utilize them the system doesn’t work and it’s “not worth the bother”.
In addition, this is how you legally acquire found property. You report it found, get a receipt, and then claim it after a set amount of time…works for MANY things, including abandoned vehicles.
$200 bucks is definitely worth trying to find the owner. That could be someone’s week of grocery money
I’d say 50-100 or less don’t even try.
$100 could be a week of grocery money too. $50 for a frugal individual, even.
You’re totally right! Point being it’s a lot of money, especially if they have a family
Agreed. Giving it to the police means it will never find its owner.
Counterpoint. I once found about £80, handed it in to the police, got a receipt, a few weeks later got a call, no-one had claimed it, was allowed to come and claim it.
From your use of the £ I’m going to assume you are not American. America has legalized theft if it’s the police doing the taking. Look up civil forfeiture. You turn over money to cops, they’ll just say they “think” it was involved in crime and pocket it.
The cops won’t even bother with civil forfeiture. There’s a court case (a shitty one, more of a hearing, but it’s there) involved in that and the prosecutors will roll their eyes for $200. They’ll just put it in an evidence locker, put up a notice in a newspaper that no one will ever see, then 30 days later say that no one claimed it and then they pocket it.
Not sure about now, but in 98 the hostess at the restaurant I worked at found ~$200 and turned it into the police. 3 months later, no one claimed it and she got it back.
Fair point, and yeah, I’m in the UK.
This is the definition of anecdote. Sorry
Anecdote is valid when someone has employed the term “never”.
You’re admitting it’s an anecdote. :)
I’m not ‘admitting’ anything, I’m confirming it though. And again an anecdote is fine, when you’ve said that something “never” happens.
Not to mention they may just “hold it” for you
try having sex with it
I can hold onto it for you
My ex and I once found nearly $500 in cash in a Lowe’s parking lot. What did we do? We put it in our pocket, and used it to help pay that month’s rent.
Where I live you actually don’t go to the police. Anything left of on the street belongs to the municipality so you’d have to go to the municipalities office. That said, I’d think it’s quite hard to track down owners of cash… You can inform the appropriate body in your country that they can contact you if they find the owner. Then after some time (maybe documented somewhere?) you can keep it.
I’m assuming there was no ID or contact info with it, since you probably wouldn’t be asking if there was.
Hypothetically, if you were to give it to the police, how would the police know that who the rightful owner is? If I walk into a police station right now and say I lost $200, do you think they would hand over $200 to me? No, I have no way of proving thats my money, and they wouldn’t believe me for a second.
Keep it. Lord knows everyone could probably use an extra few hundred bucks these days…
Very simple: if you lost $200, what would you like the person who found it to do?
Whoa whoa whoa
Consider the feelings of others???Put it towards rent, shit’s insane these days
videogames and pizza
Just keep the dough. Finders keepers.
If you find cash, keep it. If you find a wallet with other items (ID, personal stuff) hand it in.
Bruh it’s $200. Just let her keep it lol. Not like it was $200K. The police won’t give a single fuck about $200. The cop would probably just pocket that anyway.
I agree with this. It’s cash. If I handed it in and the police called and told me they found the rightful owner I’m not sure I’d even believe them. Let the girl keep it!
No clue where your downvote is from but there isn’t a single cop who wouldn’t pocked $200 lol. Don’t give it to the kid though, OP. Take the group out for ice cream or something and pay yourself for your time spent cleaning the park.
If I was that kid, the lesson I would learn from that is to not tell anyone in the future.
Children do not need $200, simple truth, especially not $200 that’s by all accounts not really theirs. It’s time for OP to give a white lie that they tracked down the original owner and buy Timmy & Co. some ice cream cones and call it a day
I’ve just accepted that Lemmy is full of absolute clowns who will downvote literally anything for no reason. I bet this comment gets downvoted too. I have accepted my fate.
You got one downvote on your original comment. Calm your tits. Fictional internet points mean nothing at all. ‘Oh no, a faceless stranger didn’t concur’.
Wise up.
I was replying to a comment that said they didn’t understand why someone would downvote my comment. I replied saying there are always people who downvote for no reason. I suppose you are one of those people. Thank you for proving my point. No need to be a dickhead about it.
Everything I said stands true. You’re still doubling down and whining that someone disagreed with what you said ‘for no reason’ as though your words are the be all and end all. Once again, wise up.
