I found a D&B Card - was this wrong?

In the past I would never even think twice about what I did, but after spending too much time on this forum the last decade, I have to stop and think.

I went to Dave and Busters the other day and walked up to one of the machines to buy a game card. I am about to put a $20 into the machine and notice a card is already sitting in the dispenser. I take the card and look around, nobody is anywhere near me, for probably a good 20 yards. Nobody appears to be looking for anything.

I assume the card is used up but for the heck of it I try it in the nearest machine and there are about 145 credits on it, my best guess is that this is a $25 card with a $2 supercharge for a value of $27. I play this same game right near the dispenser three times, all the while watching to see if somebody comes looking for it. After at least 5 minutes I pocket the card and walk out.

I am not really feeling guilty, and I am not sure what more I could have done, but just wanted to throw the scenario out to the Teeming Millions.

Reported for forum change.

In my opinion - take it or leave it - you did your due diligence. If the owner of the card had come back and some how figured out that you had used up his credits, he could have a) raised hell and/or b) threatened to take you to Small Claims court. My understanding is that in situations like this, courts generally defer to the precedent set by the case of Finders v Keepers.

Actually, that case would have been Keepers v Weepers, and I agree. I would have done the same thing. If someone came back, I would have given them the card and a couple bucks for the games I played. Maybe someone was trying to “pay it forward”?

That was basically my plan. I had not thought of the pay it forward thing, but I suppose that is a possibility.

There really isn’t much you could do. You couldn’t ask if someone had lost a card because then anyone could claim they had lost it when they hadn’t.

I guess this tells you I spend too much time working and not enough playing when I read the message title and instantly thoughtDun & Bradstreet. They have cards now?! :smack:

Anyway, I think you did the right thing. It’s not a unique item like a wallet or jewelery where the owner could prove that it was theirs. It doesn’t have a particularly high value and it’s presumably money that they could afford to blow on luxuries. And you made some effort to see if the owner was coming back for it, which I think is a reasonable effort the situation.

Moderator Action

This is more of an advice question than a factual question and is better suited to IMHO. Any factual legal aspects of the question may still be addressed there.

Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.

The exact number of credits on the card would tell you a lot, actually. If it comes out to an even number after the surcharge, then it’s almost certainly a case of Keepers v Weepers, as tonyfop said.

On the other hand, if there’s some odd amount on the card, it’s possible that it was left there by somebody who no longer has a use for the card (say, somebody who is on traveling and doesn’t have a D&B where he lives), and was meant to be found.

Some years ago I took a CD to a local chain outlet to have some pics printed. I walk around the store for the required wait time and return to the photo outlet. I see a couple looking at a handful of pictures and then they put the pile down on the counter and leave, I wander over to the pile of pictures and I recognize the one on top as being mine, so I look through the rest and they are all the pictures that I had on the CD. I thought “Thanks!” took my pictures and left.

Isn’t there ticket redemption counter? I’d have taken it there.

Thats theft - plain and simple.

How could the couple have been looking at my photos if they weren’t paid for. When the photos are printed they are kept behind the employee area until the owner or somebody comes and pays for them. The couple that was looking at them left them on the counter by the machines you upload your pictures from.

I don’t know why they had them or why they left them or why they didn’t say anything to the clerk about receiving someone else’s photos but, IMHO, there’s no way they could have been where I found them without being paid for and I watched the couple abandon them and walk out… why would they want to keep my photos?

I think you did more than enough to find the rightful owner and can have a clear conscience.

One time several years ago during a busy Christmas shopping day I was in a huge line to pay at an electronics store and I looked down and found a check made out to Cash for $125. When it was my turn to pay for my stuff I handed it in. Several of my friends said I was stupid and the person I gave it to probably just cashed it but there was no way I could have took that money.

More likely the clerk left them on the counter by mistake and the people decided to look, or they got mixed in with that couple’s photos.

You had a legitimate beef for invasion of your privacy - but that doesn’t excuse your actions.

Since you didn’t bother to ask the clerk - you stole them.

I don’t think Heropsychodreamer did anything wrong. It’s like finding a $20 bill on the ground - pause, look around for signs of anyone looking for something and if not - finders, keepers.
vomit_comet stole the photos. Either someone else paid for them, or the store didn’t get paid for them - either way, s/he owed someone for them. So, theft.

A twist on the OP: you’re at the U-scan at the supermarket and you find cash in the change slot. Someone paid with cash and forgot their change. Nobody appears to be looking for it, so you buy your own groceries, take the forgotten cash, and leave. Theft?
I say yes, because whoever left that behind has a receipt (unless they forgot that as well) for the purchase. It happened to me once - I paid for about $60 worth of groceries with a $100 bill, got out to my car, realised what I’d done and rushed back in. I had the receipt, but too late. Someone had already used that pay station and gone, taking my $40. I think a truly honest person would have handed the cash to a manager type.