One time when I used the self-checkout at WalMart, I found a wad of cash just laying on the machine. I don’t know how much was in it, but I turned it in to the person watching the self-checkouts.
Well the problem with turning found cash into someone at the store…is that you’re assuming an $8.00 per hour clerk (or $10 per hour manager) is going to be honest.
Most likely they are, but it’s probably wise, when turning something in, to make sure at least two people are aware that you’re doing so. This is what I was told after I turned that wallet into the movie theater’s manager’s office. I’m not a naturally suspicious person, but I guess that makes sense.
When I was working in a movie theater, one of the manager’s pets used to browse through the lost and found box and take whatever caught her eye. And if she found something in the theater when she was on cleaning duty, and she liked it, she never turned it in, she just kept it.
And yeah, she was always willing to go on cleaning duty.
Exactly. Once I went to the mall to have lunch at the food court and when I sat at the table, I noticed something on the chair next to mine- turns out it was a woman’s wallet. ID, credit cards, cash, receipt, coins… the thing was bulging. I turned it in to the security guard at the info kiosk, and even then I was thinking afterward that I should have stuck one of my business cards in it with a note on the back that said “This wallet had $X in it when I turned it in to security on [date]”.
In my state, Ohio, the amount would not be in question. Here that would be classified as “Mislaid property”. Any person finding it would have a legal obligation to turn it over to the mercantile establishment. If they took it, it would be theft.
LOST property/money is another matter here. I can assume ownership and have claim to it against all others in the world. If I saw the person actually drop the money, although that would still classify it as “lost”, I know who the “rightful owner” is, therefore keeping it is theft.