When you find money, e.g. in the street

[Muse]

Are you legally entitled to keep it or are you required by law to "turn it in?"

 

[rh71]

I think under a certain amount, nobody really bothers to search for its owner unless they are standing right there.

This summer at a water park I was sitting at the edge of a kid's wave pool and what appeared to be a few singles kept bumping into my leg. I looked around at the 20+ people in the vicinity and nope... nobody seemed to be looking for it. I pocketed it and it turned out to be $12.

The higher the amount, the more effort (albeit slight) would be made at identifying the owners. There's not always someone to hand it into if you're in public. And of course people can claim it for themselves.

To answer your question, articles say you can keep it unless it's from a burglary.

 

[GobBluth]

I think you are obligated to turn it over to the law and if they can't find the owner over a certain amount of time they will release it to you. I don't think there is a federal mandate for such a law or anything, but I can imagine that States or even smaller governments rule that it must be turned into authorities.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I found a $1 bill lying next to the pump at the gas station a few months ago. Thought about putting an ad in the paper looking for the owner, but kept it instead. Does that make me a criminal?

Unless it's a big wad of cash where it might be somebodys life savings on the way to pay off a mortgage or it's a wallet with an easily identifiable owner I'm going to pocket the money and not think about it twice. If I drop a $20 I expect it to be gone, if I drop a wallet I hope to get it back.

 

[John Connor]

I remember in the news a few years ago some rich dude was hiding money in cities. Haven't heard too much of that since.

I've only found change lying on the street. My luck excludes me from finding anything more than 75 cents if that.

 

[master_shake_]

if it's a crap load of money there is no way i could keep it in good conscience.

that could be someones business deposit or rent or something.

 

[pmv]

The higher the amount the less likely I'd be to keep it. A lot of cash and I'm handing it in. I mean, I've seen "No Country For Old Men", I know how that story ends!

 

[John Connor]

if it's a crap load of money there is no way i could keep it in good conscience.

that could be someones business deposit, drug money or rent or something.

FTFY.

 

[master_shake_]

FTFY.

i was gonna say something about drug money....

yeah then i'd keep it.

 

[lxskllr]

i was gonna say something about drug money....

If you're in the city, and find it in a trashcan, it's probably best to just leave it there.

 

[PottedMeat]

cash (like <$50) in the street? i'll take a minute to ask people around, after that it's mine.

 

[SKORPI0]

I remember finding someones wallet with a lot of cash (almost $800 in mixed $10/20 bills), DL with pic./ CC cards/etc.. while collecting carts working at Best Buy mid '90s.
Knowing how a person would behave when they lose that kind of cash, I waited nearby safely hiding wallet in jacket. A few minutes later I noticed an old lady looking/wandering around with
that look in her face, worried and desperate. I calmly asked her "how you doing? Tells me that she thinks she dropped her wallet somewhere around the parking lot
and retracing her steps. Asked her to describe purse (knowing it was her based on the pic on the drivers license). Gives me the right info and calmly tell her "looks like this belongs to you"
and hand her the wallet. Looking at the change in her face was priceless. Couldn't stop her from thanking me enough and told her "have nice day". Felt so happy that somehow I made someones day.

A few years later our family drive (3 cars) to Niagara Falls/New York City/Boston and buy a souvenir very near Broadway. Place is crowded, traffic is horrible. Luckily I found a parking spot nearby. Like anything else I check by belongings and notice that my front right jeans pocket is empty where I always put my wallet. Calmly thinking and try to remember If I even put it back after my last purchase I walk back to shop where I bought the souvenir and ask the cashier if I left my wallet. She tells me "here it is" and gives it to me. That felt so good, it would have been a pain to replace my Illinois DL/cc cards. Good thing I rarely carry cash. My next purchase was a VANS wallet that has a chain that you can attach to your pants/belt. My wallet is about 20 years old now, torn in a lot of places, and I'm being bugged to replace it.

Found a $20 bill while walking around in the Grant/Millennium Park a few years back. Looked around and put in in my pocket.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

It's all mine--just in case any of you come across any of it.

 

[ultimatebob]

I once found $120 on the sidewalk in a bad neighborhood in Bridgeport. I figured that it came from a drug deal gone bad so I just pocketed it.

I donated some of it, which clears my conscious a bit.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I found 20 bucks in an ATM at the mall once. I felt bad good luck trying to figure out who it belongs to. Go around asking everyone if they lost 20 bucks? I don't think that would really work and it would probably just fall in some dishonest person's hands anyway. So I kept it.

Funny thing is, I almost lost way more in an ATM at a convenience store after that. Karma? lol. I took out 100 bucks, grabbed the money, went to pay for something and left. When I got home I had like 40 and some change in my pocket, and was trying to figure out how I ended up with that little, retracing what I bought etc. Then realized something is clearly not right. So I logged in to my bank figuring maybe I took 60 out. Nope said 100. Drove back to the convenience store and went to check the ATM, sure enough there were two 20's stuck on the top part of the slot. I usually count the money when I take it out of the ATM, but that time I didn't for some reason.

If I found like 100 bucks, then I'd probably keep it, but keep an eye out in case someone posts something on FB about losing money or something then find a way to get it back to them. Suppose you can bring it to the cop shop, but pretty sure they'd just pocket it and call it a day.

 

[Raduque]

Asking around if somebody dropped money is a good way to get rid of any money you found - the first person you talk to is going to say "Yeah, it's mine."

Buddy of mine found $500 in a parking lot and turned it in at a police station. Desk sergeant probably put $500 in his bank account the next morning.

If I find any money that not accompanied by identification, it's mine. IE: loose bills on the ground, or a bag of money sitting by itself. A wallet or purse, something that has DL/IDs/cards will get returned to the owner, with everything intact.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

What money?

 

[Muse]

cash (like <$50) in the street? i'll take a minute to ask people around, after that it's mine.

I found a $50 bill in the middle of the road one day while on my bicycle, it was many years ago. Never crossed my mind to wonder if I could find the person who last had it in their possession, there was nobody around.

 

[DrPizza]

Heh, it'd be amusing to turn in a petty amount to a police station, then go there every day for 2 weeks, checking to see if someone's claimed it yet.

 

[gorobei]

the law in CA says: (at least back 20 years ago)

if you find something, you have no claim to it.
if you turn it into the local PD and leave your name with report, then they will wait a certain amount of time.
if no one claims it by the set time, the pd will contact you and you will then have a legal claim to the item/money.

while possession is a factor, you are better off going the wait and see route. the person who makes a claim to be the original owner will have to have some evidence/description that proves it.

 

[John Connor]

I found 20 bucks in an ATM at the mall once.

That right there is a great exception. Sometimes if you're lucky the ATM will spit an extra $20 or more at you, while the previous user got hosed. Hopefully they kept their receipt.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

That right there is a great exception. Sometimes if you're lucky the ATM will spit an extra $20 or more at you, while the previous user got hosed. Hopefully they kept their receipt.

What good is a receipt when dealing with an ATM that short changes you? If you withdraw $100 and it spits out 4 $20's the electronic record will say it gave you the full $100 and the receipt will say it gave you the full $100. You're going to have to jump through a bunch of hoops and get the machine audited either way.

 

[John Connor]

What good is a receipt when dealing with an ATM that short changes you? If you withdraw $100 and it spits out 4 $20's the electronic record will say it gave you the full $100 and the receipt will say it gave you the full $100. You're going to have to jump through a bunch of hoops and get the machine audited either way.

Personal experience.

 

[Red Squirrel]

What good is a receipt when dealing with an ATM that short changes you? If you withdraw $100 and it spits out 4 $20's the electronic record will say it gave you the full $100 and the receipt will say it gave you the full $100. You're going to have to jump through a bunch of hoops and get the machine audited either way.

Yeah there is no way to really prove that it malfunctioned. I imagine they might just take your word for it and give it to you, if it's only 20 bucks, but if it was a larger amount then they probably would not. Hard to tell. I typically try to use only the bank ATMs which may possibly have better measures to track that, but every now and then might use the standalone ones at stores etc which probably won't have much measures in place.

 

[Artorias]

the law in CA says: (at least back 20 years ago)

if you find something, you have no claim to it.
if you turn it into the local PD and leave your name with report, then they will wait a certain amount of time.
if no one claims it by the set time, the pd will contact you and you will then have a legal claim to the item/money.

while possession is a factor, you are better off going the wait and see route. the person who makes a claim to be the original owner will have to have some evidence/description that proves it.

Paper money is beautiful in that no one can claim ownership of it once its lost. Unless they marked down the serial numbers of each bill any money you find on the street is yours regardless of what the law asks you to do.