Honestly, I wouldn’t do one damned thing. For starters, a bag of cash falling out of an armored truck is going to attract plenty of attention with or without me, so me calling it in or not wouldn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. Also, the idea of taking that money is silly as it seems easily traceable. So I’d just look at it, think “Wow, you don’t see that every day” and keep on keeping on.
You don’t have to justify theft, just live with it.
Return it right away and hope for some reward.
Not touch it. Then race home to post my story on the SDMB.
mmm
I’m sufficiently needy/greedy that if I could get away with it scot-free, I would. But I would not if it meant taking one iota of risk of getting caught.
Ummm, finders keepers/losers weepers???
The word is important here. They say “grabbed the money” which implies to me that they could see the truck & guards were returning for the money. They grabbed it and ran.
Thats different from picking up something that seems abandoned.
I’d have picked it up, followed the truck and honked or made enough of a ruckus until they pulled over, then handed it back to them. I’d probably be calling 911 as I pursued them, just to be sure it was reported and documented.
I can’t believe there’s any other answer. For G-d’s sake, if you keep it, it’s theft. Why would you do that?
I need someone to explain to me how a bag of money falls off of an armored truck. It’s not like we’re talking about an open bed pickup truck or anything. You hear of this happening every once in a while, but HOW? My guess is that the driver/guards have something to do with this “accident” and may even be acquainted with the people who “find” it.
As for the OP, as tempting as it would be to take the money and run, the potential to f*** up your life is too great. I would immediately report it and hope for a reward.
They could be inside jobs. We probably don’t hear about the cases where it happens and the money isn’t returned because if it’s due to carelessness or internal theft the armored car company doesn’t want their customers to find out. But sometimes it’s just plain carelessness. A more likely case for a simple accident is when one of the guys puts a bag on the ground while getting his keys out and forgets to put it in the truck before driving away. But any kind of distraction could make someone forget that they forgot to close the door, though I imagine in a modern armored truck there’d be an indicator in the cab about that.
A book called A Simple Plan touches on this subject of found money and how it can seriously fuck your life up.
I’d take it. I’d be scared as hell I was going to get busted but I’d take it. :What’s the most they’d give you anyway? A year? I could do that standing on my head.
This was also a movie starring Bill Paxton. (And it was a pretty good movie.)
Poor communication between the 2 man crew of the truck could result in one of them not securing the doors properly.
As for taking the money? It’s theft. And since the money is probably the property of a bank, it’s considered bank robbery. As for this particular incident, the idiots snatched it as the crew was trying to get back to recover it. The armored truck crew got the license plate number of the idiots’ vehicle. It wasn’t a case of just finding a bag filled with currency, it was more of a snatch and run.
It was pretty good. Made me want to read the book and now I know what NOT to do when I find my bag o’ dough.
Also Money for Nothing with John Cusack. It was based on a true story and, right around the time the movie came out, the guy who had found the money in real life, committed suicide.
Remember the episode of The Rockford Files where the guy who had stolen a suitcase full of money x years earlier got a pang of conscience and wanted to return it because he thought the statute of limitations had run out? Turned out he was wrong, and he brought a whole shitload of trouble down on him, including a bill for over $1 million from the IRS!
For the potential thieves here, I believe Fearless Leader did an article about laundering money here.
And yeah, I’d take the money too if there was a reasonable chance of getting away with it. No moral justification needed. I’d be ok with the knowledge that I was a dirty, dirty criminal. And if I ever had a pang of conscience later in life, that kind of money can buy lots and lots of booze to drink the guilt away!
That’s what Bobbie Sue did.
mmm
Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas / You know he knows just exactly what the facts is.
That rhyme is a far greater crime than anything mentioned in this thread.
Return it, with my luck I would know damn well 14 cameras would be recording my picking it up, license plate, VIN tag, fingerprints and who knows what else.