Would you take the iPod? (long)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My extended family rented a house at the beach for a week. When we arrived, one member of the family, B, found an iPod shuffle in a basket on the kitchen counter. The iPod was engraved with a man’s name. B told several family members about finding the iPod, and we speculated that it might belong to the owner of the house, or might have been left behind by a prior guest.

Apparently, B called the office handling the rental property and left a message saying that he found the iPod. He received no reply, and (unbeknownst to us) took the iPod home with him.

About a week later, out of the blue B starts boasting to me about his “new” iPod – how he listened to the music of the previous owner since he was not familiar with the artists, how he erased its contents and loaded his own music, and haha won’t it be funny to refer to it as the “John Smith” iPod from now on. (I assume that he was feeling smug about getting something for nothing, or, possibly he was feeling superior because he knows that noone else in our family would have thought to call the rental company and take the iPod.) Then he asked me not to tell anyone else in the family that he had taken it, presumably because he feared their disapproval.

Now, I am aware of the notion of “finders keepers”, and I appreciate that B did report to the management company that he found the iPod. I’m not outraged or anything, but taking the iPod strikes me as selfish and possibly wrong. Why is the iPod different than the DVDs, books and magazines we found in the house, which were presumably left by the owner as a courtesy for guests to use? I don’t think B would have made an attempt to take those. What if the management company didn’t relay B’s message to the owner of the house?

I wouldn’t have wanted to take the iPod, because it obviously belongs to someone else (who might be the owner of the house), and because I already own two iPods that work just fine. FWIW, B definitely didn’t need another iPod, as he already has an iPhone and several iPods of various sizes.

Do you agree with B’s instinct on this, or mine? If you agree that it would be OK to take the iPod under the circumstances, would you have actually taken it? FWIW, I haven’t told anyone else in the family about the iPod.

2

B’s a thief. End of story.

3

Wait a minute… you rented a house that had bunch of the owner’s personal property in it, and you wonder if taking the iPod is wrong?

YES, IT IS WRONG!

4

What they said. B is also an asshole.

5

How is this not stealing? If you took the DVDs or books out of the house that would be theft, too. How is this different?

6

There is no notion of “finders keepers.” There is a notion of “theft.” If B hadn’t received a reply from the rental office, he should have dropped by with the iPod. It had the owner’s name on it. They would have contact info for him. The office could have contacted the owner and said they were holding his iPod until he could drop by to claim it. That’s what I would have done in the situation.

7

How is this even a question? He took it from someone’s house, it’s not like he found it on a random sidewalk.

:rolleyes:

8

It sounds fairly obviously wrong to me. The owner furnished the house with things to entertain tenants with: DVDs, books, an iPod - which, incidentally he wrote his name on - of course it’s theft. Even if it had been left by accident, it would still be theft. But it looks to me like it was left on purpose, for people to borrow if they wanted to. Bet the owner never makes that sort of nice gesture again.

9

It has the owner’s freakin’ name on it. Leaving a message at the rental company does not constitute a reasonable effort in this case. Sure, it’s a fairly cheap Shuffle, but that doesn’t make it not theft.

10

iPod: Thieve Different

11

So have you left a message with the rental agent, letting them know where the iPod is, in case anyone asks?

12

Thievery.

13

He should call it his iSteal.

14

Theft, pure and simple. Calling a rental company doesn’t grant one a magic right to steal other peoples’ property. Calling the company was a good thing to do; given no forthcoming information, the iPod should have been left where it was.

15

People like your B really disgust me for another reason - he’s got multiple iPods and an iPhone! He is not needy! What anyone needs with more than one iPod I never got anyway (upgrades don’t count; I mean using more than one concurrently). If he had none I could almost maybe possibly see it but to have many and steal someone else’s engraved ipod, out of their house! Wow! What an asshole and I wouldn’t be surprised if your family wasn’t allowed to rent from there every again.

16

How is this even a question? B stole it, pure and simple.

17

Exactly. It sounds awfully like B just wanted to pay lip service to returning this guy’s property so they might keep it for themselves.

18

Update

When B told me that he had taken the iPod, I told him that taking it was wrong.

So why is this even a question? I guess I wanted to believe that my B was not an asshole.

Thanks for the suggestion to call the rental company myself. I’ll do that today.

iSteal indeed.

19

I don’t think it was ever stated that the man’s name on the iPod is the same man who owns the property.

20

I don’t think it’s “theft” at all, or even unethical.

  • As a personal-use item, it was clearly not meant to be part of the house’s furnishings and amenities like the DVD’s and other materials. It was clearly left by a previous renter.

  • He attempted to return it to the owner by reporting the name and info to the property manager, who would be the first point of contact if the tenant went looking for it and who has access to info such as that tenant’s phone number.

  • An iPod shuffle is what, $50? This is the equivalent of finding a pen or a keychain that the person left behind. If I lost a shuffle, I wouldn’t even expend five minutes looking for it; I’d just shrug it off and buy another one. It’s the equivalent of losing a pair of sunglasses somewhere.