RoadToRiches
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Post by RoadToRiches on Jun 18, 2011 11:40:12 GMT -5
This never happen to me before.
I went grocery shopping and coming back to my car, I found a wallet on the parking lot. It was some girl's wallet, it had her DL in there and her money was all over the ground. I grabbed it, picked up all the money and looked around to see if she was still there.
I got in my car and I have to say, the through of keeping it crossed my mind for a split second. But that was quickly erased from my mind because I know I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. There was $400 in there, all in 20 dollar bills. I thought "Man, that is like half of one of my cards paid off"...
Anyways, I got home and went through it trying to find anything so I can contact that girl. From the address on her DL, she didn't live far (like 3 miles away from me), so first thing I did was look her up on Facebook..nothing...google? nothing. No phone number, no nothing.
So I went to her apartment to drop this thing off. It took me a while to find it, and when I finally found the place, her apartment said it was vacant. WTF?
I knew she was somewhere because I found her insurance card and it told me what car she drove. So I see the same car model parked. I took out her insurance card to check the VIN on the car to make sure it was actually hers...and next thing I see, it's her coming out of other apartment with her eyes just showing the joy. She couldn't believe it. Gave me big hug, her mom came out (the girl was 21) gave me a hug too..she said she was crying for hours...
I tell you, I drove back home and I had this unbelievably awesome feeling inside me. It was strange. I just felt so happy and good. It might sound strange.
One thing that really hit me was, when you opened that wallet, there was a sticky note right inside of it, so you see it when you open it up. It said "Do I need it?".
What would you do? Would you give it back? Be honest. I thought about keeping it when I first found it. Just for a second I thought about it. But then, I would feel so awful. Because that girl probably doesn't make that much, it was Friday, she probably got paid, cashed her check and now lost her wallet with everything in it.
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Jun 18, 2011 11:43:46 GMT -5
Yes, I would also have given it back as her info was right there. No doubt. You did the right thing! $400 is quite a bit of change for a 21 yo to be carrying around with her! I never even have 10% of that on me, and I am almost twice her age, LOL. I doubt anybody here will post saying they'd have kept it, but lets see.
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gooddecisions
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Post by gooddecisions on Jun 18, 2011 11:45:26 GMT -5
Keeping a wallet wouldn't even cross my mind. Good for you for returning it. I lost my wallet once and had it stolen once. I got it back both times due to the kindness of a stranger.
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bring in the new year
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Post by bring in the new year on Jun 18, 2011 11:47:10 GMT -5
I have done the same. And turned it over to the police because we couldn't get in touch with the girl.
I do wish credit card companies would be more helpful in cases like this. We called the credit cards in her wallet when we couldn't find any real info and asked them to have her contact us.
We didn't ask for her info - we asked them to have her contact us. And everyone of them refused. That kid also had over $100 bucks in her wallet. How hard would it have been for a supervisor to give the poor kid a call?
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Jun 18, 2011 11:49:38 GMT -5
We didn't ask for her info - we asked them to have her contact us. And everyone of them refused. That kid also had over $100 bucks in her wallet. How hard would it have been for a supervisor to give the poor kid a call? Yeah, that's weird that they would not do that. I can see it happen though. The world is strange these days ....
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RoadToRiches
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Post by RoadToRiches on Jun 18, 2011 11:51:12 GMT -5
I told her she should put a note in there with her number or something. I have that in my wallet. My note says "In case of emergency, please call my mom (name) at (phone number)"
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Jun 18, 2011 11:53:43 GMT -5
I would have jumped in my car and raced to the next gas station to make sure I can use her CC before she gets a chance to cancel it. Yeah, it's nice to still have some honest people around.
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gooddecisions
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Post by gooddecisions on Jun 18, 2011 11:53:58 GMT -5
"I do wish credit card companies would be more helpful in cases like this." The credit card company was who helped the person who found my stollen wallet. The perp had taken my license & cash but left my wallet w/ credit card and debit card and dumped my purse in a field. The person who found it called the credit card company and they gave her my work number for an amazing reunion. I had immediately canceled my cards, so I was just thrilled to get my keys back since it had my last remote control. The stolen license still bothers me though.
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RoadToRiches
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Post by RoadToRiches on Jun 18, 2011 11:59:39 GMT -5
I would have jumped in my car and raced to the next gas station to make sure I can use her CC before she gets a chance to cancel it. Yeah, it's nice to still have some honest people around. She didn't have any credit cards. Not even a debit card!
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schildi
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Post by schildi on Jun 18, 2011 12:00:47 GMT -5
I would have jumped in my car and raced to the next gas station to make sure I can use her CC before she gets a chance to cancel it. Yeah, it's nice to still have some honest people around. She didn't have any credit cards. Not even a debit card! Darn!!! So much for that plan!
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Jun 18, 2011 12:23:56 GMT -5
Good for you. I would do what I could to find the person, but some people don't have much identifying information. I know my dad has found $20 bills in the grocery store parking lot. How do you even start to know who it belongs to? He says he goes in to the store and gives it to customer service. The next time he goes in, they give it to him if it hasn't been claimed.
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whispering17
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Post by whispering17 on Jun 18, 2011 12:36:11 GMT -5
I came out of a grocery store one evening and found a purse sitting in a shopping cart. I took the purse into the store and turned it over to the night manager. My son (a teenager at the time), who was with me, said "Mom, I would have taken the money and left the purse." I was appalled. I explained that money meant a lot to that person and it wasn't mine so I couldn't take it. (I think there was $100.00 in the purse) My DS is 34 today and just told me just the other day how much he remembers that night and what it taught him about honesty. Sigh! I'm a proud mom
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Post by illinicheme on Jun 18, 2011 12:42:50 GMT -5
I certainly like to think I'd make an effort to get the wallet back to the rightful owner in tact. I've never come across that situation though, so I guess I can't say for certain.
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Ava
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Post by Ava on Jun 18, 2011 13:07:32 GMT -5
When I was a little kid I was riding my bike and found a wallet on the road. This was in the old country, my mother was raising us (two children) on her own. We were poor, although we never went to bed hungry and we always had a roof over our heads. In my original country, you don't have any help like section 8, food stamps, Medicare, etc. If you are a single mother, you are on your own. I went back home and gave the wallet to my mother. She told me she was going to find the owner and return the wallet, because that's what you have to do in that situation. I agreed with her and went back outside to ride my bike. Of course I soon forgot about it, me being a kid and more interested in hanging out with my friends, etc. Many, many years later, my mother confessed she was going through a very tough month when I found that wallet, and she took the money out of the wallet before turning it to the police. It was a bittersweet moment for me. I understand her, because it was tough making do with what we had. I know she did us for my brother and me. But still, till this day it doesn't seem right. I don't judge her, though.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Jun 18, 2011 13:07:40 GMT -5
I would definitely give it back. I would be paying it forward from when I lost mine in Colorado and some awesome dude returned it. Every credit card, every single dollar, and my military ID was still in there. I was in my early twenties and had about as many dependents as I had stripes at the time. It would have really hurt to lose any money then.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2011 13:15:21 GMT -5
Between the cash (envelope system) and the "do I need it?" note, she sounds like one of our people, trying to get a handle on her life and her financial choices.
I wouldn't be surprised if the reason there was no credit card in the wallet is that it is frozen in a block of ice at her house.
It's nice to help a stranger, but it is even better when you get to help a fellow traveler.
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midjd
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Post by midjd on Jun 18, 2011 13:20:55 GMT -5
That's awesome, indebt! I love the feeling you get when you help someone out I have found cell phones, keys, wallets, you name it. I always return them (usually it's in a store parking lot or restaurant). I've lost a few wallets and it is one of the worst feelings in the world... so I would never keep someone else's. I also lost my car keys once, someone dropped them in the mailbox and Kroger sent them to me about 2 weeks later!
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kent
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Post by kent on Jun 18, 2011 13:39:03 GMT -5
Job well done - Diogenes would be very proud of you!
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kent
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Post by kent on Jun 18, 2011 13:40:24 GMT -5
and.....
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happyscooter
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Post by happyscooter on Jun 18, 2011 13:43:45 GMT -5
ava, I wonder why your mother didn't keep that secret to herself. Someone came to see my mother when she was literally on her death bed to confess something they had done and wanted to 'get it off of their chest.' My mother was so upset, mainly because she felt bad because this person had carried this around with them for so long. But she also felt bad because this was something that meant alot to her and I think she had tried to block it out for many years.
What was the point?
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busymom
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Post by busymom on Jun 18, 2011 13:45:51 GMT -5
Indebt, YOU TOTALLY ROCK!! I'm sending you some Karma too! Good for you!
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Apple
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Post by Apple on Jun 18, 2011 14:21:31 GMT -5
It's cool that you were able to find her. I lost my driver's license a few months ago and was looking all over for it. I finally had a weekend off and went to a thrift store to find a book for me and some jeans for DS. The cashier there caught up with me, handed it over and said "we thought this was you". While I'm glad I got it back, my phone number is in the phone book (in a town of 14k it wouldn't be hard to find, especially since there are few people in the *country* with my last name) so I could have got it back weeks earlier. I did usually go there almost every weekend so they probably just thought they'd seen me soon enough.
If I didn't have time to track her down like you did I'd turn it over to the police and then post a "found" ad in the local classifieds. Hopefully between those two actions she'd find it.
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Catseye
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Post by Catseye on Jun 18, 2011 14:58:10 GMT -5
Very cool of you, Indebt. I've exalted you! And no, I wouldn't have kept it or it's contents if there was any kind of I.D. inside. If I found a wallet with no clue as to the owner, I'd turn it in to the local police precinct.
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kgb18
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Post by kgb18 on Jun 18, 2011 15:01:17 GMT -5
I would definitely try to find the owner, and if I couldn't I would turn it over to the police. I could never keep money like that. I would never be able to live with myself if I didn't do the right thing.
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wodehouse
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Post by wodehouse on Jun 18, 2011 15:06:14 GMT -5
Karma for you! That happened to me without quite the same ending. Found a bundle of 3 $50 bills on floor of Home Depot just before Christmas. Turned in to management. After 4 months went back and claimed it back (no one had come asking for it). I imagined it being some poor, hard-working guy's Christmas cash and that he had a crummy Christmas. The bills sat in my desk for 2 years, I was meaning to give it to a worthy charity (boy, did I procrastinate). Our HVAC guy was doing fall tune-up (well, it was actually December again). He was a poor, hard working guy. He told my wife how he'd gotten his cash bonus the week before and gone to Toys-R-Us with his kids. Somehow he lost the cash, blew away or something, (don't these people have wallets?) and he and his kids were heartbroken. My wife called me and we gave him the $150. So, it went around.
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kgb18
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Post by kgb18 on Jun 18, 2011 15:27:42 GMT -5
That's a great story wodehouse. It still ended up with someone deserving, and you tried to find its rightful owner.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2011 16:48:08 GMT -5
Wonderful story, indebt!
I've been on the "losing" side a few times and I know how it feels. My first 35 mm SLR that I left on a plane when I was 25. A favorite jacket that my son had worn for HS track that I also left on a plane a few years ago. My then-husband once had a $7,000 watch that he was wearing disappear in a restaurant. In all cases, we did what we could to retrace our steps and let people know how to contact us but we never saw our things again. I also remember how thrilled and relieved I was that some blessed person at O'Hare who found the case with my Bose headphones and iPod that I'd left in the Ladies' Room called the number on my business card (I had it in the case) and told me she was leaving it at the Information booth. (Yes, there IS a common thread here. Plane travel can be tiring and chaotic and I really have to watch myself- especially if I've had a glass of wine on the plane.)
I couldn't live with myself if I kept something valuable that I'd found. The more valuable, the harder I'd try to find the owner.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2011 17:40:26 GMT -5
You went way above and beyond. I would have turned it into the store manager.
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april47
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Post by april47 on Jun 18, 2011 18:28:04 GMT -5
I found a wallet years ago. There was a couple of checks, credit cards ad DL in it but no cash. I managed to find the name and called them long distance and he said he would pick it up so I gave him our address. We were a young couple with a couple of young children living in an apartment at the time. He showed up the next morning at 6AM took the wallet, looked in it and asked where the cash was. We said there wasn't any and he just grunted and turned and walked off and never even said thanks or pay for the long distance call. Boy that ticked me off. We saved him a heck of a lot of trouble. Like we would have been dumb enough to have called him if we took the cash.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2011 19:55:42 GMT -5
You went way above and beyond. I would have turned it into the store manager. I would have given the store manager my contact info but, unfortunately, I'd be reluctant to turn a pile of cash that size over to anyone other than the original owner. That way either they get it back and I know it, or I donate it to charity.
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