# Someone gives your kids unexplained, expensive gifts. What do you do?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-gives-your-kids-unexplained-expensive-gifts-what-do-you-do/367587>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [August 6, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-gives-your-kids-unexplained-expensive-gifts-what-do-you-do/367587 "2006-08-06T18:54:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2006, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-gives-your-kids-unexplained-expensive-gifts-what-do-you-do/367587/41 "2006-08-07T11:09:31Z")

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[QUOTE=MikeG]  
A compass? Like the magical one you talked about in the BOOK thread? So then why tell us it has nothing to do with the book?

[/quote]

Because when I label a thread as book-related, it means I am working on the book amd looking for feedback. Inthis case I was past that portion of the book but happened to think, 'Hey, what would happen if this ocurred in the real world? I wouldn’t give sucha present to my nieces, after all." And the objections people’ve raised, though valid, don’t apply in my plot, as the mother in the book, you may recall, is rather a fuckwit.

> [@](#):
>
> IRL, no way are the kids getting the stuff, and I’m giving it to the cops. In your fantasy book wold, Hermione tells McGonagle who confiscates the brrom/compass/book.

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**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2006, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-gives-your-kids-unexplained-expensive-gifts-what-do-you-do/367587/42 "2006-08-07T11:11:34Z")

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[QUOTE=Sunspace]  
I don’t even have kids and the idea creeps me out. However, that applies only to physical parcels that display the sender’s knowledge of the intended recipient.

I’m wondering, would you have the same reaction to anonymous gifts of cash? Say, you got a wad of hundreds in an envelope shoved under your door, or a cheque from some lawyer representing an anonymous donor, or an unexplained deposit in your bank account? Assume that it checks out as real money, no counterfeit cheques or whatever.

The reason I ask this is that one of my fantasies after winning the lottery is to be on the other end of such an anonymous foundation, giving money away. I’m now wondering whether that would be harder than I thought.  
[/QUOTE]

Ever read Sue Grafton’s E is for Evidence? Kinsey Milhone gets an unexplained bit of cash with mostly-bad results.

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**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2006, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-gives-your-kids-unexplained-expensive-gifts-what-do-you-do/367587/43 "2006-08-07T11:32:37Z")

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[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer]  
Ever read Sue Grafton’s E is for Evidence? Kinsey Milhone gets an unexplained bit of cash with mostly-bad results.  
[/QUOTE]

Not quite the same thing, but after seeing _A Simple Plan_ (found cash, rather than delivered to you), my husband and I decided we would immediately go to the cops and never never **never** touch the cash. :eek:

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