The other night I found a beautiful pocket knife that sells for up to $300 from Internet knife sites. I ran a (free) ad in the local paper for three days as well as listing it on craigslist but no one called. But to clear my mind about having any guilt over keeping it, I decided to call up the one store in town that sells the brand in question (along with other knives) to see if they could look in their computer records and provide me a name and phone number via the knive’s s/n and brand.
The conversation didn’t go well. The lady said things like “exactly where did you find it” and “the person could have only bought it from our store” and “can you bring it in and drop it off with us.” I told her (truthfully) that I didn’t mean to sound rude, but that recently I’ve had a number of bad experiences with people screwing me over … and that with her telling me that said knife doesn’t have a serial number peculiar to it (which isn’t true) and that I’m not comfortable with how this was going.
She let me know that she felt that I was being rude and reminded me that I had called her. But to my way of thinking, she gave too many indications that she was out to pocket the thing for herself.
I feel like an idiot having called her as now I’m getting lots of phone calls back from other numbers. My concern is that if I return these calls the person(s) will say “How dare you speak to my wife/employee/etc.” or “Hey, dude, the lady at the knife store called me and told me you have my knife.”
I would very much have the knife get to its rightful owner but just don’t know what to do at this point and, too, I’m afraid to anwer my phone with these two or three strange numbers now coming it.
I lost my job and things have gone really, really bad and so here I am using a public library computer and walking around in shoes that should have been tossed 3 months ago. Any friendly thoughts on the matter will be much appreciated (before the library closes in 3 hourss).
If I were the store owner I wouldn’t have given out contact info for a customer just on the basis of a phone call. She had no idea who you were or what your intentions were.
I disagree with usedtobe. Most police are honest. There are plenty of cases of people turning lost property over to the police and the property either ending up in the original owner’s hands, or if it goes unclaimed, being returned to the person who found it.
All that being said, it seems like you’ve made a reasonable effort to find the owner. There isn’t much the police could do that you haven’t done already.
Who says the calls are from the store - sounds like the OP put their number up on craigslist and the paper as well.
IMO, and despite the illegality of it, the OP now has a new knife of their own. “Finder’s Keepers” morally overrules “theft by finding” in anything without distinct identification (like a wallet with ID), as far as I’m concerned.
Except - someone could have reported it lost or stolen to the police (say, for insurance purposes), which the OP would only find out if they contacted them. But see my previous post…
I had a similar situation when I found a bracelet in a parking lot of a business once. I called the business and they demanded I bring it to them.
I told them “No. I will keep it and if anyone comes to claim it, they can call this number (and gave my phone number. If they can describe it, I will bring it back.”
The OP was asking the store owner for the potential owner’s contact info so he could call them. I wouldn’t have given those numbers out either, if I was the shop keeper.
That said, the calls you’re getting may be legit replies to your Craig’s list ad, not just scammy calls put up by the store owner. If you’re that concerned, dropping it off with police is the way to go, but keeping it at this point is fine too.