Finding money and things on the ground

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Several weeks ago I was parking my motorcycle, in the cold early morning hours, in front of one of the local grocery stores and spotted a tattered dollar bill. It made me feel pretty good as there’s just something really fun and nice about finding money on the ground like that.

Of course, when you’re a little kid and see a bill laying on the ground it gives you a big rush of excitement, or at least it would me when I was a kid. I’d always run over to it praying that it might be a ten-dollar bill or larger. But usually it would turn out to be just a buck.

Once I found a crisp $50-bill near Union Square in downtown San Fransico in front of a bunch of ladies of the evening. I suspect that one of them dropped it from her bra.

Another time I found a $100 bill in the upstairs of a casino. That was nice because I was broke from gambling and needed it (so I could eat).

Another time I found a hundred dollar bill in front of a Good Guy’s store. I thought it would be good to call the paper and have it mentioned in the ‘lost and found,’ but no one called to claim it so I kept it. It was probably stupid to do that over such a small find, but I thought I’d try and find the rightful owner and be a good guy about it. :wink:

I’ve considered training a bunch of crows to fly around and look for paper currency, but never followed through on it. It probably wouldn’t be nice to use birds like that when they should be flying around and having a normal life anyway.

Once, during my days of being broke, I decided to walk along a metal fence that I could see was trapping leaves and litter. My thinking was that because the fence was near a big grocery store that there’d be a decent chance that maybe I’d find some paper currency that the wind had blown across the parking lot and into the fence, along with all the other crap that was accumulated there. And I was right! I found a raggedy $10 bill!

Lately I’ve had a few dreams about finding wallets. I’ve never found a wallet on the ground. Once I found one in a department store and gave it to a sales person that was right there. I wonder though if that person really did the right thing and returned it to the owner.

Many years ago I was walking through a very crowded casino and saw one step in front of me a really gorgeous woman’s watch! For that brief moment that I saw it, I would guess that it was worth at least several hundred dollars, as it glittered with jewels. But I screwed up because I thought I’d be cool about it and pick it up when I was right over it. But the lady walking in front of me must have read my mind because as soon as I told myself to wait one more step, she looked down and GRABBED it just like that and stuffed it into her purse!

I think I would have made an effort to find the rightful owner in that case, as that would have gone into my karma piggy-bank for the next life, if I had. Oh well, such is life! :smack:

Anyone else have stories to share about the joy of finding money or other valuables? I’d enjoy reading about 'em (later on when I get up from sleep) if you have some! Thanks! :slight_smile:

2

Obviously we have different views on this.

I teach my pupils to look for the rightful owner as part of my morals lecture.

3

On the way to my last job interview - upper management directorship - I was driving to the locale when I noticed some trash blowing across the street. It had an odd green color, and I slowed down and peered out my rolled down window.

MONEY!! - WOW! I slowed down and came to a stop, got out, and there were one dollar bills floating around the road. I picked them up and put them in my pocket. Nice crisp ‘ones’.

I got the job, at the salary I had wanted. :slight_smile:

A few years back I was swimming in the ocean. I was at a not so well known beach. I went under the water and came up to a piece of something floating on the surface. It was a $100 dollar bill. I called to my wife who was in the boat, and said hey honey - look! :slight_smile: She said holy shit, there’s another one next to you. Low and behold there was, then she said it again, HOLY SHIT ANOTHER!!! :eek:

In all we found $500 bucks. 5 $100 bills floating effortlessly on the water.

We live in a fairly swanky area of Connecticut, with big McYachts traveling by at all times. This was not a super surprising find. Fun, and we ate well that night at a local swanky restaurant, but a fun find nontheless.

4

For property, sure, but loose cash? Eh, I can’t imagine finding the rightful owner, or having any way of determining that the person was the rightful owner. If it were thousands of dollars, sure, but even a hundred dollar bill could be anyone’s.

5

I’ve never found more than five bucks. I’ve never been one of those people struck by luck.

One of my boyfriend’s friends found a Rolex once. Yes, a real one. Worth thousands. He sold it. I don’t remember the rest of the details of the story, but I doubt he tried hard to find the rightful owner.

6

Loose cash or a cheap watch is one thing. There is no sense in trying to find the rightful owner. It is either impossible or not worth the effort.

For large amounts of cash, I would contact the police but I would not put an ad in the paper for my own safety’s sake. You will get to keep the money after a certain amount of time if no one claims it.

For something like a wallet, or an engraved piece of jewlery, I would either try to find the owner or let the police try to find the owner depending on how easy the person might be to track down.

Morals are great, but they don’t include impossible tasks. I just wish I was lucky enough to have the moral dilemma in the first place. :frowning:

7

I’ve found money several times in my life, as well as other items, but my two favorite finds are these:

  1. I once found a neatly folded $50 bill in front of the concession stand at a movie theatre. I thought about turning it in to the teenage counterpersons, but then thought, “They’ll probably just keep it.” I was probably being judgmental, but I figured, “If it’s found money for someone, it might as well be me.” Don’t remember what I bought with it, but I know I splurged on something (no, it wasn’t jujubees and diet coke).

  2. I found a little plastic shark on the tennis court, too. It was about 2.5 inches long, kind of acquamarine in color, had round pin dots for eyes, and its tail was curved slightly upward (on a flat surface it rested on its side fins). For some reason I picked it up. I ended up putting on the top of my toilet tank, because the color matched my bathroom tiles. In the middle of the night, when I went to take a leak, I discovered that it glowed in the dark. Whoa! What a fun find.

8

P.S. I also discovered that the counterperson in the local takeout-only Chinese restaurant found a passport. He didn’t seem like he’d be interested in tracking down the owner or making sure it was available if the owner came back for it, so I took it. I spent quite a bit of time trying to track the person down, but to no avail. I then spent a lot of time figuring out which government office to return it to (it’s not as easy as you’d think). I’m quite proud of myself for that one.

9

We found about $30.00 floating in the surf on a trip to the beach once. That was particularly nice because we had gone to the beach with the kids because we couldn’t afford any other entertainments and the beach was free. We had a nice lunch at Sonic with our findings!

Also, DH found a nice sapphire bracelet at an entertainment park once when we were walking out to our car. We took teh bracelet home and called in the information in to the park. The park employee chewed him out for not turning it in to the lost and found, but we were all tired from the long day and hadn’t wanted to walk all the way beck to the park headquarters. The park employee said we should bring the bracelet back to the park, but we didin’t. DH told them to call us if anyone came looking for it, but they never called.

10

On of my housemates found $50.00 once in my room. It was just sitting on my nightstand. There was no way for him to determine the rightful owner, so he kept it.

Sailboat

11

I’ve found a couple of twenties in my pocket by a miracle, and a twenty hiding behind the curtain in my bedroom, but nothing bigger–and those were clearly mine. If it were a twenty, or a fifty or a hundred, I’d look around for the rightful owner.

Anything else… well, finders keepers. But I’d put a loonie or a toonie in a homeless person’s cup later on, or tip a busker, to balance things out. :slight_smile:

12

I get my “found money” rush every time I do the laundry. I’m notorious for not going through my pockets. I frequently find $20s stuck to the side of the wash drum. And it always feels like I hit the jackpot even though I KNOW I owned the money before I carelessly laundered it. Go figure.

13

On several occasions I’ve found money in motel rooms, placed inside the Gideon Bible, or the phone book. Several fives and a twenty once. I think people place it there as some kind of random act of charity. I suppose they could be hiding their money, but I’ve only ever found single bills, so that doesn’t seem likely.

14

I don’t see it as a moral dilemma. It’s not your property.

15

Uh… you’d do what?

I find money all the time- I’m very lucky like that. One time I found $10 in a churchyard and I really needed sunglasses so if I was a believer I’d say that was a sign from god, wouldn’t you? Liquor stores are good for finding money on the floor, not surprisingly.

16

So tell us, how would you go about finding the owner of a loose, one dollar bill found on an empty, non-residential public street in the late evening?

17

This is why I always put my contact info on any currency I possess.
As well as my calling card number and password, in case the poor soul who finds my money doesn’t own a phone.

18

I wouldn’t know how.
But I wouldn’t keep the money either.
If the sum is large enough, hand it in to the police. If not, give it to charity.

19

Ask them to identify the dollar bill. What color was it? Did it have a picture of a dead white man on it?

20

This might be a whoosh. I was being sarcastic – of course he knew whose money it was, he’d broken into my room. I just couldn’t tell which of the three of them was the guilty party, so I couldn’t get it back.

Sailboat