To be very shocked at attitude towards finding money

FannyCornforth

Jane that reminds me of when we found a (gorgeous) lost dog.

I rang the police; and the dog had indeed been reported lost.
They had the owner’s details.

I had to literally beg the duty officer to give me the phone number of the owner of the dog.

GDPR innit?

Wouldn’t they phone the owners themselves, to tell them where the dog was?

That’s what happened with us, when we found a small dog running around in that mad, distressed way that dogs do when they’re lost. Right by a busy road, too.

Owners came to fetch it - and I had a reasonably polite but firm go at them for not putting a collar on it - it’s so difficult to catch a dog in that state without a collar! TBH it was something of a miracle that it didn’t get run over.

Witzend it was lovely when they came to fetch the dog. All the kids were crying, and the man had tears in his eyes. They were so grateful.
They came back 15 minutes later with a bottle of whiskey, a bottle of wine, flowers and a box of chocolates !
They’d pretty much raided the local coop!

I think it would be very difficult to get the money back to the owner. He/she may be deceased, and the quilt donated to the charity shop as part of a clear out.

If the charity shop is contacted, one of the workers there might decide to pocket the cash.

Similarly if handed in to the police, I believe it wouldn't get back to either the owner or a descendant.

People find bargains on eBay and in charity shops and make money from them.

Any attempt to publicize it would probably result in false claims.

So yes, although technically dishonest, it's just a lucky find.

If the owner is deceased then the money is part of their estate and belongs to their next of kin. With social Media there would be a reasonable chance of finding whoever donated the quilt. If no one comes forward then the charity shop or the new owner of the quilt can keep the money with an easy conscience.

I once lost about £300 that was in an envelope in my pocket. I pulled something out of the pocket on a train and it must have fallen out and onto the floor. I didnt miss it until later in the day. No one handed it in. The finder probably decided it was their lucky day. This was back in the 1980s so it was worth a lot more then. I would probably do the same if I found money in a similar way.

biglouis

I once lost about £300 that was in an envelope in my pocket. I pulled something out of the pocket on a train and it must have fallen out and onto the floor. I didnt miss it until later in the day. No one handed it in. The finder probably decided it was their lucky day. This was back in the 1980s so it was worth a lot more then. I would probably do the same if I found money in a similar way.

Really? That money could be someone's rent, a pensioner's budget for the week, hard made savings that had been withdrawn for something special.

Very greedy and unkind to not hand it in.

I’m amazed Biglouis, though after your comments upthread I shouldn’t be. Unless you were desperately poor, which I don’t believe you are, why would you not hand it in? Do you have a conscience?

Thankfully not the prevalent view on here. I know several people who have been distressed at losing what might appear to others to be negligible sums but were very important to them. Always wondered about the greedy heartless people who just helped themselves.

Whilst I think think this us a bit of a hypothetical set up, I’d like to know how the charity shop would necessarily know where the quilt has come from. Was it left in a black bin bag, as some are near us? Did they take details of the person leaving it at the charity shop? They’ve never asked me when I’ve left things?
What do we expect a charity shop worker
would do if they had no idea where it came from? Give it to the charity would be ideal, but there’s no guarantee.
When we did my Nan’s house clearance, we could have unknowingly given away real treasures but I didn’t expect someone to come back and tell me.
If I find money in the street it’s good to hand it in, but I wonder whether or not it ever gets back to the owner. When I lost my purse in Winchester, it certainly never came back. I cancelled the cards within an hour, but the money was gone.

Well as I said upthread here in Dublin someone unknowingly donated a pair of curtains to a charity shop with money sewn into the hems. They just used social media and the donator came forward, was able to answer a couple of questions and got her money back.
Not making any attempt and just shrugging and telling yourself that oh they probably wouldn't be able to find the owner anyway so might as well keep it is just trying to excuse dishonest behaviour.

@Germanshepherdsmum if you are “amazed” by something like this that you read from some random on the internet you must lead a remarkably boring life. You are certainly smug and sanctimonious.

I once found a lovely gold ring, with stones, pretty distinctive, the police weren't interested, I'd happily have taken it into the station, I tried on facebook, I told the local jewellers in case anyone came in and asked, I asked on lost box. I tried for ages and ages to find the owner
I read shortly aferwards about someone up who had picked up a dropped note in a shop and were prosecuted for keeping it
But if the police won't take it what are you supposed to do, it presumably had been dropped by a customer, not the shopkeeper, who might not have tried to find the owner.
I get that the police can't take in everything but when i lost my purse once with a fair amount of money in, someone did take it in and I was very pleased to get it back via the police. What would have happened had the police not taken it in, it was before social media

biglouis

@Germanshepherdsmum if you are “amazed” by something like this that you read from some random on the internet you must lead a remarkably boring life. You are certainly smug and sanctimonious.

Well if Germanshepherdmum is 'smug and sanctimonious' so am I. I find your attitude towards other people's money pretty abhorrent.
Perhaps, instead of name calling, you should take a long hard look in the mirror.

Actually there’s a lot of sanctimoniousness here. We have no way of knowing whether either the OP or any posters would or would not actually try to return something they found.
We know what they say they would do and that’s all. It might well depend on the circumstances and if that offends some I’m sorry, but it’s true.
e.g when I found £10 outside Sainsbury’s I took it to customer services. I have no idea what happened to it as I heard nothing more. If I found £10 in the street and no one appeared to be looking for it I’d keep it.

Yes there is a lot of sanctimonious claptrap here from virtue signallers. If 50% of the MN thread said they would keep it that would probably be nearer the truth. People rarely have the courage to admit something that will make them unpopular - even to a bunch of randoms on a forum whom they are never going to meet. Ive got past caring about all that at my age.

The person who picked up my £300 clearly did not care that it might have been my rent money, monthly pension or whatever. They just kept it and probably had a high old time with it.

That made my cynical. So if I found some money I would regard it as karma returning what I had lost.

biglouis

@Germanshepherdsmum if you are “amazed” by something like this that you read from some random on the internet you must lead a remarkably boring life. You are certainly smug and sanctimonious.

Thanks for that nice little comment.

Well I’m late to this thread but I can’t see where there’s anything sanctimonious about being honest.

Nor smug.

I bought a handbag from a charity shop recently.
In it’s many zippered compartments I found a hand full of Werthers originals in one and some old pills in another.

Mollygo

Actually there’s a lot of sanctimoniousness here. We have no way of knowing whether either the OP or any posters would or would not actually try to return something they found.
We know what they say they would do and that’s all. It might well depend on the circumstances and if that offends some I’m sorry, but it’s true.
e.g when I found £10 outside Sainsbury’s I took it to customer services. I have no idea what happened to it as I heard nothing more. If I found £10 in the street and no one appeared to be looking for it I’d keep it.

What is sanctimonious about saying that if you found a large sum of money you would hand it in/make some attempt to find the owner.

If we posted on a thread about shoplifting or bullying saying we didn't agree with such behaviour make us sanctimonious?

biglouis

Yes there is a lot of sanctimonious claptrap here from virtue signallers. If 50% of the MN thread said they would keep it that would probably be nearer the truth. People rarely have the courage to admit something that will make them unpopular - even to a bunch of randoms on a forum whom they are never going to meet. Ive got past caring about all that at my age.

The person who picked up my £300 clearly did not care that it might have been my rent money, monthly pension or whatever. They just kept it and probably had a high old time with it.

That made my cynical. So if I found some money I would regard it as karma returning what I had lost.

The old karma excuse.

Yes there is a lot of sanctimonious claptrap here from virtue signallers

Or perhaps truthful answers from honest people.
A pity your experience didn't make you think you could never inflict the same misery on anyone else who lost money.

Anyway, if the money was so necessary to you, what on earth was it doing in an envelope in a pocket?
I pulled something out of the pocket on a train and it must have fallen out and onto the floor. If so, very careless of you!
Possibly a pickpocket - my young daughter had her purse stolen by a pickpocket on a train but she learnt from that.

That post was to biglouis btw

Coastpath

There are a lot of people on that thread saying hand the money in, give it to charity or try to find the owner. There are lots of good people out there too.

I bought a bag of dolls in a charity shop for £5. After spending a morning cleaning them up and laundering their little dresses I sold them on ebay for over £100. I gave half the money to the charity shop and kept the other half. Did I do the right thing? What would you have done?

That’s called upcycling and many people do this as a hobby and even to make a living. They were clearly worth more after the trouble you went to, making them clean and pretty again. And very thoughtful to share the money with the charity shop. Well done.

Last week in a supermarket atm my husband realised the man who was before him in the queue had walked away without picking up a stack of £20 notes. My husband dashed after him and handed him his money.
35 years ago on a bus in Italy we found a wallet stuffed full of notes. Clearly had dropped from a pocket. We were pretty broke but didn’t hesitate and gave it to the driver.
People we told later thought we were mad, the driver woukd keep the money, but we said then let that be on his conscience, it was not on ours. I hope the owner was reunited with his wallet.