Found a wallet. What would you do?

[Jake 48]

At the beach with my boys, they were 5&7, as we are leaving, youngest found a girls wallet with 8 bucks in it, no ID, but obviously a kids wallet, lying next to a minivan. He thought he should get to keep it, no way, we went back to the beach , sized up potential owners and went asking the adults if the owned a red minivan. Once we found the owner of the van, sure enough there is a young girl with them, her wallet. mother is grateful, I just tell her thank the boys they found it. She caught up with us in the parking lot and gave each of the boys 2 dollars for being honest. good lesson for the kids.

[hoops902]

"Don't lie to yourself if you found a wallet with $400 cash in it, that you wouldn't even for a split second thought about keeping it.. "

I've found several wallets before, it never even occurred to me to count the money in it actually.

"So if Indebt had kept the wallet, his right to the property could have been superseded only by the true owner. If the true owner never showed up, it becomes his. So would keeping it have really been "stealing"? Probably only if he refused to give it to the true owner."

I dont' think this is how it works (or it's at least a simplistic version). If you misplace your car, someone else can't just drive it away and keep it hoping you never track them down. You are required to make an effort to find the person which in many places involves turning in that property to the police for a specified period of time.


"Since there was identifying information available, it woud certainly have been immoral to keep the wallet, but illegal might be a stretch."

I believe it's illegal and I believe it's called conversion (stealing seemed like a phrase more people would recognize). Not 100% sure, but i think this is accurate.

"I bragged all over these boards today about my net worth. Is it so wrong to ask for a pat on the back from time to time? "

Personally I prefer someone who asks for a pat on the back as opposed to someone asks questions which have only one answer in an effort to get a pat on the back as if they weren't basically asking for it.

[midjd]

Personally I prefer someone who asks for a pat on the back as opposed to someone asks questions which have only one answer in an effort to get a pat on the back as if they weren't basically asking for it.

Kind of like you're doing?

I've found several wallets before, it never even occurred to me to count the money in it actually.

[hoops902]

Jun 20, 2011 17:49:18 GMT -5 midjd said:

Personally I prefer someone who asks for a pat on the back as opposed to someone asks questions which have only one answer in an effort to get a pat on the back as if they weren't basically asking for it.

Kind of like you're doing?

I've found several wallets before, it never even occurred to me to count the money in it actually.

I don't think not counting the money deserves any kind of pat on the back. I think it's completely standard. What kind of scumbag finds a wallet and then rifles through it counting the money before deciding whether or not to return it? Maybe I'm overestimating the moral fiber of posters on this board though.

It's a sad day when "I didn't commit a crime, but I thought about it" gets referred to as "a feel good story". I would think it would be a complete non-event in the life of anyone with even a decent moral code. Maybe I'm just vastly overestimating the morals of the majority here.

[midjd]

Again, keeping the wallet would not necessarily be a crime. Not every state has lost/unclaimed property laws. Even in those that do, a lot depends on what the item is, where it was found, and how easily identifiable the owner is (e.g. finding a $20 vs. finding a wallet).

And the gist of the OP, as I read it, was "isn't it nice this person got her wallet back?" not "I didn't do a bad thing, congratulate me." Obviously you read it differently, and I think at this point we all know how you feel...

[hoops902]

Jun 20, 2011 18:20:12 GMT -5 midjd said:

Again, keeping the wallet would not necessarily be a crime. Not every state has lost/unclaimed property laws. Even in those that do, a lot depends on what the item is, where it was found, and how easily identifiable the owner is (e.g. finding a $20 vs. finding a wallet).

And the gist of the OP, as I read it, was "isn't it nice this person got her wallet back?" not "I didn't do a bad thing, congratulate me." Obviously you read it differently, and I think at this point we all know how you feel...

Please point me to the state which says that finding a wallet with an easily identifiable owner allows you to keep the wallet and everything in it. This isn't some hypothetical, we know this wallet had clear identification about who it belonged to. I'm curious which states you seem to think allow you to just pick it up and keep it.

It IS nice this person got her wallet back, after OP rifled through it, counted the money, and thought about stealing it...but ultimately decided not to based on what day of the week it was and how old the owner was.

[midjd]

Please point me to the state which says that finding a wallet with an easily identifiable owner allows you to keep the wallet and everything in it.

That's not how laws work. If a state does not have a "theft of lost/mislaid property" law (I live in Indiana - we don't), finders keepers. Kentucky and Illinois both have laws governing it, so it would be "stealing" there. I have no idea where the OP lives.

[Deleted]

I *get* the OP. I've returned a lost wallet (contents intact) to its rightful owner before and she was really excited/happy to get it back so it was a feel-good moment for me. Even if I was only doing the right thing, it made me happy to do something that meant a lot to someone else.

And yeah, I rilfled through it, primarily trying to figure out how to return it to whoever it belonged to. But I counted the cash too............

[RoadToRiches]

Jun 20, 2011 18:08:29 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

Jun 20, 2011 17:49:18 GMT -5 midjd said:

Kind of like you're doing?

I don't think not counting the money deserves any kind of pat on the back. I think it's completely standard. What kind of scumbag finds a wallet and then rifles through it counting the money before deciding whether or not to return it? Maybe I'm overestimating the moral fiber of posters on this board though.

It's a sad day when "I didn't commit a crime, but I thought about it" gets referred to as "a feel good story". I would think it would be a complete non-event in the life of anyone with even a decent moral code. Maybe I'm just vastly overestimating the morals of the majority here.

Dude listen, I didn't just grab the money and started to count it. If you read my post you will notice that the money was all over the ground. I simply picked it all up, put it all together and placed it in the wallet.

And your analogy about the car is totally different. Who the hell "misplaces" their car! LOL! You can't just drop your car from a shopping cart and have it fall out of your pocket. Common' man!

I tell you what though.. lol.. If I found your wallet, I would sure as hell keep it and go on a shopping spree! lol

[RoadToRiches]

Jun 20, 2011 18:45:56 GMT -5 hoops902 said:

Jun 20, 2011 18:20:12 GMT -5 midjd said:

It IS nice this person got her wallet back, after OP rifled through it, counted the money, and thought about stealing it...but ultimately decided not to based on what day of the week it was and how old the owner was.

LOL! wow...

Yes, because if it was Monday between 6:24pm and 9:31pm and person was between ages of 31 and 42, that is against my rules written on a sticky note on my fridge to give the wallet back.

Lucky for that girl, it was Friday and she was 21. That falls in a range previously written by InDebt Familia in "The Ultimate Family Rules" volume 5, page 388, section 3(a)

[midjd]

Indebt, I have a story for you - my DH just got home from his night classes and said, "I almost ruined your night." Apparently he'd lost his keys at school and spent almost an hour searching for them - the car, the computer lab, parking lot, everything.

Someone had turned them into Lost and Found. Most importantly, I didn't have to spend another 2 hrs in the car today to drive to the city and pick him up

So to all you wallet and cell phone and key turner-inners, thank you!

[schildi]

Wow. Anything you say can and WILL be used against you. LOL.

[zibazinski]

I still worry that the hostess or the guy's sister helped themselves to his cash and the guy thinks WE took his money before returning his wallet.

[midjd]

Zib, I wouldn't let it worry you. If it were my wallet, I'd assume that someone took the money and left it there, then someone else turned it in...

[zibazinski]

There's that but in the future, I will do what I think is best, then I don't fret about it.

[bring in the new year]

Jun 18, 2011 21:31:49 GMT -5 formerexpat said:

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?

Someone gets their wallet stolen. The thief calls the CC company and says, hey I found XYZs wallet and want to return it - have her contact me.

She contacts the thief and they meet to exchange the wallet. He abducts her, rapes her and kills her.

You really can't see why a CC company isn't more "helpful" in this situation?

Well, expat, since I was calling from a place of business and I asked the CC company to tell her a place of business, then, no, I don't see why the CC company would assume I was a rapist.

And then there's the fact that I'm a woman, but I guess your theory is that I would be the accomplice.

I think you and hoops need to get more fiber in your diet.

[Cass]

I lost my driver's license once in the deep of winter & had someone mail it back to me months later once the snow melted. I've found a driver's license and tracked down the owner on FB to mail it back. And wallets are always mailed as well, cash intact. If I lost mine I would hope somebody would return it intact, but if you need the cash take it and please just send me my ID! Such a pain to have replace it all.

The last time I returned something (the guy I tracked down on FB) I walked out the front door the next day and found $20 on my front lawn. Chalked that up to karma.