Say you happen upon a sum of money in some public place, nothing shady or crazy. Maybe someone just left a bundle of cash laying around somewhere like a park bench or whatever.
For the sake of this hypothetical, you don’t know anything about how the money got there, why someone left it, etc. Could be mob money or who knows.
So let’s say you find the following amounts, what do you do at each level of cash? What would be your response at each amount:
$1
$10
$25
$50
$100
$250
$500
$1000
$10,000
$100,000
$1,000,000
Here are my answers in case you are curious:
$1 - immediately pocket it; no attempt to return it to rightful owner
$10 - same
$25 - same
$50 - I would wait around at the park bench for a while to see if anyone came back for it, maybe about 15 minutes. Then I’d pocket it.
$100 - same, maybe wait a little longer.
$250 - At this level I’d start to feel really bad about just keeping the money. I’m not sure if I would go to the police but I probably would at this point. I would still wait around at the park bench for a while, maybe text some people asking what I should do.
$500 - Definitely wait around and then head straight to the nearest police station to report what I had found.
$1000 - Same
$10,000 - At this level of cash I’d really freak out and just be tempted to leave it there and walk away very slowly, figuring it was some kind of mob money or something.
$100,000 - Same, but even more scared for my life.
$1,000,000 - At this level of cash I’d be scared but it almost might be worth it at this point to take it and then report it missing, or try to keep it for myself. I’d be very conflicted about just leaving it there and getting the fuck out of dodge quickly assuming it’s for some sort of drug deal, or grabbing it and risking my life over life-changing money.
I would take it. Take it all. If there are any consequences, sort them out later, but nobody’s going to be too hard on you for picking up a bag of money.
I’d take the $1 if no one is around the immediate area. Anything else is turned in to the authorities. Up to about $250 I would turn in to the local lost and found if one exists, but above that I’d contact law enforcement.
Even $10 can be a big deal to the working poor, and amounts in excess of that can be the difference between eating or starving for many. I’m not so hard up that I’d risk putting someone else in that position for a little personal gain.
As for the larger amounts of $100000 and $1000000, there is probably some sort of illegal activity involved if taht much is left lying around. I’d want to make it someone else’s problem, and the PD is paid for that sort of thing.
At the 10,000 and up level I’d be thinking either that it’s criminal or part of some police sting and therefore dangerous to touch, or it’s fake money and if I grab it guys with hidden cameras will pop up. For the $1000 and less I’d pocket it and look for someone who seems to be searching urgently for something (there’s no point in asking random people, I’d just end up handing it to the first liar). How long I’d take before giving up and keeping it would depend proportionally on the amount. I don’t think I’d take it to the cops if it’s just money with no way to identify it; since there’s no way to ID whose it is they’d just do what I’d do and keep it for themselves I expect; at that point it’s just found money.
Money in a wallet or purse with an ID would be another matter, that I’d get back to the owner regardless of the amount.
Single loose notes: mine (up to £50 in the UK, equivalent to about $75 - although I’ve never found a single loose note bigger than a twenty)
Bundles/wads of notes: I hand to the police and get back later if unclaimed (I found £80 in £20 notes last year and got it back when nobody claimed it)
Money in a wallet or purse, any amount: I try to trace the owner myself if possible, or hand to the police and collect later if unclaimed.
Over $100, I’d turn it over to the police. Under that, I’d take it, and I like to think that part of it would go to the next animal rescue group I encounter. Or maybe the local women’s shelter. They’re my charities of choice.
I chose $100 because if I lost less than that, I’d just write it off to carelessness or bad luck, but over that, I’d make an effort to find it. Not that $50 is pocket change to me, but it’s not going to cause my electricity to be cut off either.
I once found $20 and handed it in. This was back when I had so little cash of my own I thought anybody would miss it and look for it. Should’ve kept it.
My limit on keeping found money now is probably $50 or so. Anything higher, $100 or up, I’d put it in a “Lost and Found” someplace, or if it was really a lot hand it in to the Police.
Several months ago, I was at Subway, and as I put my change away, I noticed a $100 bill at my feet. :eek: I handed it to the cashier and told her, “This was on the floor, and it isn’t mine” and she put it in an envelope under the cash drawer. I did not say out loud what I had found, for obvious reasons.
I got my food to go, and before I left the store, a woman walked up to me and thanked me. It had dropped out of her husband’s wallet when he paid. I told her, “No big deal. It wasn’t mine.”
It’s tough for me to imagine a legitimate reason for someone to leave a MILLION in cash laying around. Maybe there are some, but I don’t know what they are.
I’d have to at least consider taking it and spending it on things slightly more wholesome than illegal drugs/guns without serial numbers/whatever. That said, somebody (probably a criminal) is going to miss that money and want it back, and people who deal in that type of cash transaction probably don’t place a high value on human life. That tends to give one pause.
Banks don’t even keep that much money on hand. I had no idea how all that worked, but a lady I know who worked at a bank prior to Y2K said that there was a customer at that bank who wanted all her accounts converted to cash, and the cash stored in her safety deposit box. They amounted to something like $90,000, and because even the large bank where she worked didn’t have that much cash on hand, had to order it from the Federal Reserve.
$1,000,000 will fill a good-sized duffel bag, so it isn’t like you’ll find it blowing down the street. Nor is it likely to be something even a diamond merchant would be carrying, so it defaults to drug money or a sting operation. In any case, I would leave it in place and call the cops.