Years ago I left my house on a busy residential side street in Washington DC, got in my car and began to drive away. Moments later, my spidey sense told me something was missing. My wallet! It contained credit cards, IDs and some $400 in cash. I raced around the block, parked illegally, jumped out of the car and frantically started looking around like a chicken with its head cut off. I barged into a young woman standing in front of my house. She looked at me and asked, "Are you John?" When I mumbled that yes, I was he, she proffered her hand with a black object in it. "You dropped your wallet," she said. "Did you take a reward?" I blurted out. "I can't thank you enough." "No, and you just did," she replied. What an angel!
34
Please Niraj - do at least one follow up story: if the mystery man appears; if he doesn't, what you did with the money and if the money wasn't claimed and you reclaimed it, what did you do with it.
17
I once found a cashier’s (bank) check in a parking lot with no payee’s name, in the amount of $29,000+. I was in front of my credit union. I stood there to see if anyone would come back for it, and then went inside to see who it was that had just gotten a bank check. Turns out it was someone buying a vehicle that day, and the bank officer was able to call the individual to tell them what had happened. I was glad to have helped someone avoid panic and desperation, and it reflected well on the credit union, too.
39
Random small cash no apparent owner = finders keepers losers weepers.
17
Halachically, if you find an object (including money) that can’t be traced to its owner, you are permitted to keep it. It’s a nice thing to donate all or a portion to charity, and if it’s a lot of money, a good thing to put it aside in the event the owner comes back to look for it, but neither is required. See this link: https://torah.org/learning/honesty-class66/
9
You should turn it over now. The owner is more likely to call the transit authority looking for it than to thumb through the New York Times! After ten days he may give up. To do the right thing you also need to be pragmatic.
16
I’ve enjoyed reading the stories here, but it’s got me thinking. It’s one thing to wonder what to do with found cash or goods in quantities of $20, $100, $500, or even some traceable item worth thousands (like an expensive watch). But what if you came across a bag of cash that was obviously from criminal activity? I’m talking about unquestionably illicit goods. Say you found a bag containing thousands of dollars in mixed bills. They aren’t taped together in the way banks bundle cash. They are not sequential. There is no splash of dye on them, indicating a bank robbery. Maybe there’s even some drug paraphernalia present, just to make it really obvious. So you know that cash came from someone up to no good, someone who harms others by dealing in drugs, and it’s in a place where no one will know you found it and whether you keep it. Would you keep it? That’s a real challenge. All this other stuff is small beans. If you kept it, what would you do with it? Would fear guide your decision, or morals?
I’ll be honest: in that case I would be torn.
8
@Passion for Peaches, this is easy... you walk away and you walk away fast. It could be a trap. Next thing you know you are surrounded be 5-0. Even if it is not a trap, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Last thing you need is your fingerprints on stolen loot
10
A few years ago hubs and I took a trip to Herndon to visit friends. We drove through a bank ATM there (Sunday afternoon) to get out some cash. Found $100 in the ATM tray, clearly forgotten by someone before us. The next day we went to the bank during its open hours to turn it in and explain and ask if they could find the owner, and sure enough, the bank was able to identify the owner via the ATM receipt records. The woman was very happy to get her $$ back, we heard. Good karma all around!
23
I once found $45 in the snow in Park Slope. I posted about it, vaguely, on Craigslist, asking the loser to tell me the approximate time when & place when the money was lost, and the amount. That same day, a woman wrote back giving the place (within a few blocks), the time (within a couple of hours), and the exact amount. No one else claimed the money. We arranged to meet and I gave her back her money.
18
I was vending one day on Broadway, and the first purchase of the day a man bought something for $10, handed me a bill, and said "Twenty." But he actually gave me a fifty. When I gave him change from a 50, he was flabbergasted at my honesty. A few hours later, the last purchase of the day, a well-dressed man bargains me down a couple dollars on a small purchase and fumbles around for the bills. A couple of minutes later, as I'm packing up, I spot $100 at my feet: he'd obviously dropped it. I looked for him, but he was gone. I've never believed in karma, but IF I did, that would be Exhibit A.
28
I must be of the cynical generation because in a million years I would never expect that cash "turned in" would end up anywhere but in someone else's pocket. If I could not locate the owner, I would keep it or donate it to a charity, depending on my financial situation at the moment. And that's an honest response.
38
A friend of mine asks to be a volunteer for Salvation Army once a year just before Christmas, which I happily accept to do each year. So I stand out there in front of the Walmart wearing a Santa hat, jiggling a bell, and wishing people merry Christmas. The area is the middle to slightly lower class section of the town. The donations that go into the Salvation Army basket range between a few coins to $20 bills. Well, I find it interesting to have observed that normally people who by their superficial appearance don’t look too rich themselves usually give the most. Is that not interesting? I am not a sociologist and am not not sure if my observation has a wider implication. However, it may suggest that social status may not have a direct correlation giving money for donation or giving back money you have just found.
16
Thank you for being honest. When I found about $25 in my apartment building lobby I gave it to the manager who was able to locate the owner. For this individual $25 was a lot of money. Let us know if you find the owner of this money.
16
My mother once tasked me (at age 12) with buying all my family’s Christmas presents. (She had agoraphobia so she couldn’t do it herself). She handed me a $50 bill & a list. I lost the $50 before I got to the first store.
Now, we were very poor & a family of eight. I’ll never forget how nice she was when I confessed my sin, as she usually was the Tasmanian Devil. That was a meager Christmas indeed.
I think nothing now of spending $50 on dinner, but $50 back then was the world.
25
What is the difference between #1 and #3?
I have ALWAYS returned money and other items, even as a child. It simply feels right. I’ve lost money before, it was devastating. My daughter was emptying the cart into our car, but left my planner/wallet in the cart. I didn’t realize this until we got home; I drove right back but it was already gone. Later that night another store called to say they had my planner/wallet; everything intact, but cash gone. I lost 1/4 of the month’s deposit for rent and bills. It put us behind for a full year. I had a mental breakdown because of it.
Another time I had a full load of laundry stolen from the dryer. I felt violated; it wasn’t that these clothes were expensive, but that the clothes were MINE. I was only 20 minutes late in picking it up from the laundry-room. But someone felt they should steal it.
These are things I would NEVER do to anyone else EVER. So I really cannot at all understand those who would keep someone else’s things; purely and simply, it’s theft. The joy in giving someone back a lost item is sweet, but it’s not the joy that causes me to do so. It’s just a balanced feeling.
I taught this to my children. They have found wallets, stolen bikes, and once, a Paramedics Radio! They found joy in returning these items every time, which is fantastic because monetary rewards are few. We don’t expect rewards, we find the owners to give them more than the item, a feeling that there ARE good people, we give hope.
38
I've lived 7 decades. I don't let the behavior of others dictate my actions but I tend to expect others to behave badly. Unfortunately, I'm rarely disappointed.
13
@Roger, I understand, it’s a sad world we live in. Contrary to common belief, it’s not any worse than generations or centuries or even millennia ago. Humans are and have always been the same.
6
@prks. My laundry was stolen out of the dryer once too. It was very upsetting. I can relate.
8
My son found $100-bill on the ground at a crowded gathering where some extremely wealthy foreign students were present. At my suggestion, he turned the money over to the program director who advertised for the owner but then declined to give it to my son when it went unclaimed. The director said he was putting it in a program kitty and had never heard of finders keepers. Fast forward twenty years. I find $200, it's unclaimed, so $100 goes to my son and $100 to charity. My son thanked me but had no recollection of the earlier incident.
12
Years ago my two teenage sons and I where skiing down a black diamond run here in Colorado. We stopped to catch our breath (12,000 feet) when my youngest spotted a $20 bill in the snow, and then another one, and another one. The three of us where just laughing out loud picking up twenties for least 5 minutes, around $300.00 total. We figured we had found all there was to be had and skied to the lift. During the ride up my kids kept asking if we could keep it. I kept telling them I would have to think about. We decided to go back to "The Spot" to make sure we didn't miss anything. Upon return, I found a credit card in the same spot. My son looked up at me and said, "this means we have to turn the money in since we know who it belongs too." Yes it did. I left ALL the cash and the credit card at the lost and found along with my name and address in case it went unclaimed. Fast forward 3 months when a package arrives from Sawbridgeworth, England with a hand carved chess set and a penned letter and I quote, "Thank you for making our trip to Colorado special. I don't know if you play chess. If not, you should." Well we play chess now, and my boys still play when they come home from college on that chess set. To this day I still feel embarrassed for even thinking about pocketing that cash. Thank you Mr. Taylor for the physical reminder of my near transgression (ha), and for affirming my kids decision to turn the cash with your kind gift.
103
@jbone, awww. Best story here!
24
Several years ago I found nearly $300 on the floor of a public restroom in a local hospital. It was in a bank teller's envelope with no receipt. I took the cash to the hospital security guard's office a few steps down the hall and told them where I had come across it. They took my name and cell phone # and thanked me. A couple of days later, I got a call from one of the hospital pharmacists. The money, he said, was his mentally disabled son's pay from his (son's) job. The pharmacist had cashed the check for him and put the envelope in his pocket. From there, it had obviously fallen out when he used the toilet. He thanked me, and that was that. I was very pleased to learn the outcome.
A few months ago, I was going through one of the self-checkout registers at Walmart. As I started to scan my items I noticed several bills fluttering from the cash change dispenser beneath the scale. $28.00. I put the money on the platform, scanned my items and paid for them. No one came back looking for their missing money. I looked at it laying there. Then I put it in my pocket and left. I hope the Times will withhold my contact information when the police learn of this. I can afford the fine, but 6 months hard time! At my age!?
15
Tights pants with shallow pockets. Baggy pants with big pockets. Backpacks with broken zippers. Parkas with frayed linings. Blazers draped over chairs. Folded on train seats. Taxis. Toilets. Here. Europe. Mexico....If you've found a wallet in the past quarter century, it was probably mine.
23
Spy magazine once tried to see how much effort rich people would exert for small amounts of money: https://splinternews.com/lets-remember-the-time-donald-trump-cashed-a-13-check-1793849388.
They sent checks in decreasing amounts to celebrities, first $1.11 to 56 celebrities, then $0.64 to the 26 who cashed the $1.11 checks, then $0.13 to the 13 people who cashed the $0.64 checks. The only person who cashed the $0.13 check? Donald Trump. For some people, no amount is too small.
45
It’s good karma to find the owner if possible.
9
Will you write to let readers know what happened? And, p.s., good for you - you are the one who has to live with your decision and who needs the bad karma?!
11
Dear Mr Chokshi;
The guy who dropped the money is a loser. Keep the cash!
Sincerely yours, Donald Trump
20
Another found money story, a man bought a used car and found cash in the trunk. What to do? From an old Car Talk. Karma, duty, ethics etc are discussed.
https://www.cartalk.com/content/1307-giving-trunk
2
It's mine
2
There is a proverb in Persian. “Every Wednesday, someone loses some money, someone finds some money.” Don’t ask me why Wednesday’s!
2
put it on the ground where you found it, and walk away.
Give it to the MTA.
The man in the White House probably hasn't paid what he owes at any time in his entire life, but I should worry because someone drops a few bills on a subway train?
Like the Sicilians say, when the poor donate to the rich the Devil laughs.
2
All the commenters' stories about ethical efforts to return found cash and valuables have amazed, impressed, and made me feel terribly guilty about wanting to pocket the reporter's $90 that I didn't even find!
I think the lower limit should be at least $50 before we expect finders to take cash to the police. Ask if anyone nearby dropped it, and if not, do something good with it - pay it forward as they say. (And if that means giving yourself the first good bag of groceries you've had in a month, or paying the light bill you couldn't otherwise, so be it.)
I guess once you get over $100, it's worth making more of an effort to get it to the poor schmoe who dropped it and might be short on his rent now. If it's not that important, s/he won't come looking for it, and you get it back from the police. Seems ok.
4
I once encountered $40 floating on top of the water while swimming in a lake! After rescuing the bills, I decided to keep half and give half to a charitable function.
2
Yes, the money is mine! Thank you for finding it so quickly.
However, I'm embarrassed at being so careless to lose it in the first place, so rather than deal with you directly, please change it into 99 one-dollar bills, put it in a plain brown envelope, and use gorilla tape to place it under the northern most navigation kiosk on the southbound platform of the A train at the 42nd Street station.
Please drop it between 11PM and midnight tonight and then walk swiftly to the nearest exit without looking over your shoulders. That way I won't have to be humiliated.
I can't thank you enough for helping me out! I was sure I'd never see that $99 again!!!
6
You made a good-faith effort to return the money to it's owner but were unsuccessful. It now yours! End of story.
9
the best plan: 1) donate the money to a reputable organization (women in Afghanistan, orphans in Brazil, etc), 2) do not write or boast about it , 3) enjoy being a human being that did not profit in any way off of it
3
Dear "looking for approval,"
When you were a child you sought answers and approval regarding the right thing to do. Now you are an adult and should know that there is no one correct and ethical way to do things in life. Surprise! You make the call but if I find unattached cash without an owner I will keep it. As in Seinfeld (Jerry threw $20 out the window and then found $20 later that day), things even out.
For example, my wife found 20,000 Colombian pesos ($7) on the floor of a supermarket in Bogota, kept it, and then later that day promptly lost 150,000 pesos.
And please stop wringing your hands public trying to be "ethical." It very unattractive as it is another version of "humble-brag."
13
Back in the old days of pay phones at airports, I left my wallet on top of a pay phone at Newark. I realized this half-way to Albany. The plane lands, I'm walking up the jetway and hear my name paged. Pick up the house phone, it's Maria, one of the many cleaning people working at Newark. She's FedExing my wallet to my house, is it OK if she uses the cash to pay the bill? My response was "Yes please, and please keep $20 for yourself". My wallet showed up at home the next day, with all the cash less $15.00 for Fedex, with the receipt.
It was 25 years ago, but the incident restores my faith in humanity whenever I think about it.
43
@ Erin's Dad I would bet twenty dollars Maria was an Hispanic immigrant. And when I won that bet I would double up and bet she was undocumented. If we need a wall it's to protect the poor immigrants from the Trump's of this world.
31
Lovely. Niraj, Will you marry me? Not even kidding. Most nicest display of actual humanity I have come across in a very long time.
4
Donate it to your local food bank for federal employees.
4
My wife and I once went to a garage sale where several very valuable items were being offered for sale for next to nothing by the folks holding the sale. Did we owe them an alert before purchasing the items? When we paid for them the former owner commented, "What are you going to do with that junk?"
Morality? Ethics.
We said we thought they were beautiful.
6
Money does very strange things to otherwise moral people. It's a commodity I wish we never had. We need a better way to give our lives value than money. Perhaps giving away found money is a good start. We walk away the same person we were before finding the money. Obviously we don't need the money. The moment of discovery will soon disappear.
On the other hand, spend an afternoon at the monkey island and watch how the various troops of simians interact. It all comes intuitively clear who we are.
5
On the subject of found money and making people happy, the following was told years ago.
Governor Rockefeller was flying over New York State one day when he opened a window on the plane and threw a $10 bill out.
One of his aides asked, "Why'd you do that?" And Rocky relied, "To make a New Yorker happy." The aide countered with, "Well, you could have thrown two $5 bills out and made two New Yorkers happy."
At that point, the pilot called back saying, "You could have thrown yourself out and made everyone happy."
25
Isn't it very simple? Not my money, can't allocate it the way I want to no matter the virtues of my allocation.
If can't find the person, return it to the authorities. Writing a piece in the paper, even NYT should have nothing to do with it. The piece could have been written with money turned into the authorities and direction for the person on how to get this money back.
I have been in this situation a couple of times and the angst of having someone else's belonging with me was just annoyingly stressful. I know I was sweating until I had returned the money to the person, one other time to the campus police.
4
I don't think people who lose small amounts of cash go to the police to report it missing. What is small varies over time, age range and social standing, but in today's world, a couple-few hundred dollars. Objects are different. People do try to locate lost objects.
Making a reasonable effort to locate the misfortunate mislayer of cash is a worthy and appropriate thing to do. Reasonable also varies, depending on the amount of cash, the location of the loss and find, and the time involved to make the effort.
The question of the law is almost too idiotic to respond to. I defy any reasonable person to assert they have not driven 60 in a 55mph zone, rolled through a 4-way stop when there are clearly no cars, or failed to come to a complete stop before turning right on red. Would anyone turn themselves in to the authorities for such an offense?
Beyond that, I do not think one can impute too much immorality to keeping the money. There are far bigger questions upon which lie one's ethics and morals - how we treat our fellow sentient beings, how we raise our children, whether we help those seeking our protection from physical violence or economic hardship, or whether we turn them away because of the color of their skin or the language they first learned as a child, squandering billions of dollars to build concrete structures in the desert.
12
This reminds me of a joke. A lawyer tells his client that he owes $100. The client pulls out his wallet and takes out a crisp new $100 bill and gives it to the lawyer. Later, the lawyer discovers that he actually received two $100 bills, stuck together. He thought to himself: "Ethical dilemma! Do I tell my partner?"
14
My goodness, you people are a bunch of goodie-goodies! Yes, chase the person down if you can. Give it to a homeless person if you want. Give it to charity if you want. But if it's going to mean something to you, don't feel bad if you keep it. As a good New Yorker, I have gone to extremes to return a lost wallet or forgotten purse to the rightful owner. But this is cash we're talking about here-- something you keep secure in your wallet or purse, not floating in your pocket.
16
Don’t NY subways have ticket agents in booths? The finder reported no official nearby, but someone had to be at entrance. If not at starting station, likely at destination station. Never keep found money. You do not know where it’s been. Give to authority, they will launder it and give it back if no owner. Watch A Simple Plan with Bills Paxton and Thornton. It does not end well.
1
I was in Canada where they have two dollar coins when I found one on the ground. I went to pick it up and discovered it was glued to the pavement. It was hilarious, especially watching the parade of people after me who got suckered the same way.
19
If I don't know who dropped the money, I just holler out "Hey, did anyone drop some money?". If the area is crowded, I usually get an affirmative response -- or more likely four or five.
Then I ask each person for the denomination and serial number of each bill. The rightful owner will know these and if there is such a person I will return the bills to them. The three or four people who responded and didn't know the denominations and serial numbers are obviously liars. Since morality is relative, I'm at least more moral than some others around me so I'm comfortable keeping the money.
/humor
5
Take the money and run.
You're never going to catch up with the owner.
It is your lucky day.
End of store, time to move on.
No moral dilemma.
11
I can’t help but feel this article was written for self-congratulatory reasons. You found $90... big deal. That’s like Uber fare home on a rainy night. If you had found $5,000 dollars it might warrant a NY Times article, but most people who live in NYC and are unfortunate enough to lose $90 probably would not bother to take the time to look for it. The question of whether to keep it or turn it depends largely on your personal circumstances. If someone who was struggling to pay their bills or feed their kids found it and decided to keep it because they needed it, I’d say that was a justifiable decision. I’d be willing to bet most people who would go to such extremes to turn it in are doing so because they don’t really need it. And most people who are willing to turn it in and then tell as many people as possible about their good deed probably just need an ego boost, or feel by doing so they will benefit in some other way. You got an idea for a NY Times article out of it, and only had to invest $90 and some research time to make it happen. Seems like a small price to pay.
17
When my husband and I (then boyfriend) were in our mid 20s, we found a wallet in Westwood with cash (around $50) in it. That was 30 years ago, so $50 was nothing to sneeze at. The owner of the wallet was was apparently a student at USC, where my boyfriend also attended. We decided to contact him to return it, but my boyfriend wanted to keep the cash. Having been in the position of losing my billfold with much needed money unreturned, I argued the owner may very much need that money and it's the right thing to do. My boyfriend argued that he should be happy to have his wallet back, but ultimately I won out, and the young man was very happy to have both his wallet and his cash returned. I sometimes wonder if that episode gives him some faith in human nature through the years. I hope so. That said, my grandfather taught me early on never to carry more cash than you can afford to lose. I think that's a good rule to live by.
16
A few years ago, we had a small cafeteria at my business office. The cashier was friends and chatted with many of my colleagues.
One Friday, I took $60 from the ATM in the hall and shoved it in my pocket. Then I bought breakfast with a debit card. I got back to my desk and the money was gone.
I returned to the cafeteria and asked the cashier if she'd seen my lost money. Nope!
A few minutes later, a friend came into my office with her coffee, exclaiming, "Ro found $60. How lucky is that?"
Not so lucky as it turned out. I went back with my friend and asked the cashier again if she'd seen the money I dropped. Suddenly, she had.
6
About ten years ago nearly the same thing happened to me. During a scramble up a staircase at a subway interchange, a $20 bill literally fell into my hands. I went to every person I could piece together that had been in front of me now waiting for the next train to ask if they had just dropped some money. In every case, the person backed away from me as if I had a communicable disease or was sex pervert. I stopped at the wine store on the way home, purchased a moderate bottle of burgundy and gave a toast to the City of New York at dinner. It is unsettling to learn, after all this time, that I had broken the law.
17
On our first trip with my husband to Las Vegas I found a huge wad of small bills totalling $800, secured by an elastic band, on the floor of a hotel ladies's room stall. It was pretty obvious to me that it had fallen out of the pocket of a visitor who was probably using the cash for gambling or other recreational activities. We went to the hotel desk and turned it in immediately, with a description of where we found it. They took my information and thanked me. After wondering for a few weeks if the unlucky owner of all that cash ever reclaimed it, I more or less forgot about it.
A month later when I told my mother (a gambling and shopping addict) about our trip and mentioned in passing what I had found, she immediately said, "Why did you do that? I would have kept it." I asked her how she would have felt if she had lost that much cash and she just shrugged.
A year later, I got a check in the mail for $800 with a note from the hotel management stating that the cash had gone unclaimed and therefore, as per their policy, they were giving it to the finder--me. They also complimented my honesty. A nice surprise, to be sure.
49
This brings to mind an old memory from when I was a college undergrad (I am now 66).
I was walking down the street in Chicago with a good friend. We were in high spirits and enjoying the day out at museums and galleries.
We both saw the $100 bill on the sidewalk, no one in sight. Right in front of The Millionaires' Club. She stepped on it first. She needed the money. I could have used it, but it wasn't my call.
I expect it was the location that eliminated our moral qualms.
6
When I was much younger, I was walking home from work and found a joint wrapped around a $20 bill. Wasn’t going to turn that over to the cops. Got some take out Chinese and enjoyed a movie.
15
@Peter
How was the joint?
7
Mellow!
7
As a very young boy growing up in the UK,I and my two chums (out making mischief) found a 10 shilling bank note ( $15) on a path we were walking.We couldn't believe our good fortune! But we took it to the police ( well,actually, only after my mother told us to ). We had to wait three months until no one claimed it and then it was ours! Boy,did we hit the sweet ( candy) shop! :-)
10
The law assumes that the authorities will protect the lost cash until claimed by its rightful owner. My own experience with a lost item suggests this is a questionable assumption. At the very least, the law should increase the threshold to something a bit more substantial - say, $200.
3
Good Morning: Found a $5 bill on San Francisco's Market Street recently. Ran to six people walking in front of me and asked if they had dropped it. None of them had, and could see no one else who might have dropped it--therefore kept it.
Had I found $90, would have turned it in to the police who patrol the nearby Powell Street transit station. Would like to thank the author for demonstrating that sometimes virtue is its own reward--I'll bet the NY Times paid a lot more than $90 for the article.
6
I once found a $100 bill in my yard in Seattle. Since I found it and it was in my yard, I just kept it. There was a fair amount of drug activity in the area, so my rationale was that it was probably something to do with that trade. I guess I didn't over think it too much.
10
I found a $10 bill on the sidewalk on Lexington Avenue. There was not way to determine who had dropped it. So, I gave it to a homeless man sitting nearby. It seems to me that cash is different from something clearly identifiable.
22
I don't especially sleep well at night and if I were to keep money found with no identity and no way to return it, I would really struggle. It's not mine to keep. The answer is simple. Give it to charity.
2
No problem. If you can't find the owner, give it to charity. It isn't yours, it belongs to the wider community.
Now you have the problem of "which charity?"
4
Sometime ago, I was riding a subway train in DC and dozed off. At my stop, I exited in a haze of sleep and had spent over 15 minutes waiting for a transfer before realizing I didn't have my bag. It had some cash, all my credit cards, my passport, my keys and most importantly, my laptop, which held my research notes and the only draft of my PhD thesis. The fog of sleep cleared.
An hour later, as the station manager tried to track the train, another manager called to say he found a bag near the exit of another station three stops away. It was mine! All my possessions were intact.
I have always wondered how my bag ended up near the exit of another station. Why did anyone think it was a good drop-off location? How come my valuables remained untouched?
Many thanks to people (like the author) who make an effort to reunite owners and lost items.
20
@T. Clark, I can think of two possibilities. First, someone may have intended to take it and had second thoughts. Second, the person who found it may have had good intentions all along but reason to avoid any person with a drop of authority.
4
some yrs ago i found an Hermes watch by a soccer field in Central Park after a practice I coached for my daughters rec league. I asked the few parents who were at the practice, then posted on the league website. No reply so i went as far as Craigs List. When i never heard back my then wife suggested we hold it in a strong box just in case. Naturally it was never claimed and just as naturally I later learned my then Ex-wife sold it and kept the $.
5
@Nate, I’m a woman so I kind of side with your ex-wife. Sisterhood, you know. ;-)
I found a Rolex (looked like a real one to me) at a TSA airport inspection line. Someone had left it in the “all of your metal bits” bin. The TSA guy seemed surprised I was handing it over, but it never occurred to me to keep it. I wonder how many items of value get pinched in TSA lines!
4
As the spouse of a tsa agent I can report that the security line is under camera surveillance. Likely the owner would realize the loss quickly, tsa would rerun the tape (literally on the spot), the culprit id'd and whoever took it would be accosted in the departure zone. This happens regularly at every gate. Believe me, the humiliation the culprit goes through is not worth it. And yes, if you take someone’s belonging from a tsa line you are a thief.
4
many years ago, i was hurrying to catch a staten island ferry to manhattan for an interview with a baseball star with whom i was writing a book. as i came off the bus at the ferry terminal, i spotted what looked like a one -hundred-dollar bill. turned out it was.
my thought was that possibly a wall street secretary, about to go on vacation, had dropped it. i was determined to get it back to its rightful owner. when i returned to staten island later that day, i decided, i'd turn it in to the police headquarters, located in walking distance from the terminal.
but when i returned, it was raining so -- my moral determination slipping slightly-- i decided that my visit to the police would wait until the next day. but that day was the weekly tennis game, and the cynics with whom i played made a strong case : "leave the bill at the police station and neither you nor the rightful owner will see the cash again."
still, i wanted to do the right thing, so i took out an ad in my local newspaper --i think it cost $7 for 3 days -- saying i'd found a substantial amount of cash in the neighborhood of the terminal, and that the owner could reach me through a box number connected to the ad.
in the three days the ad ran, i got just one piece of correspondence -- a letter from a college student wondering how many people had answered my ad.
still, my conscience ws salved.
@joel cohen, why “a Wall Steet secretary”? Very odd assumption.
3
@Passion for Peaches It sounds like some kind of code word, doesn't it?
2
I found an nondescript envelope of cash outside a bank I had just left.
Without hesitation, I picked it up, brought it in and turned it over to the branch manager I had just met with, figuring whoever lost it would return to claim it.
They did not. I checked weekly for a month. The manager claimed the money I tuned in belonged to the bank because that is who was holding it. I disagreed and assured him I would escalate a complaint if that remained his position. He reconsidered it and gave me the money.
Some people...sheesh
22
@Brad, wow! People get weird over money. I think the safest (for your rights as well as those of the lost owner) course of action is to take the found money to a police station and fill out the paperwork and get a receipt.
The sad thing about a packet of cash dropped outside of a bank is there’s a good chance it was dropped by a senior citizen. Many older folks pay cash for things and will do large cash withdrawals or cash a social security check.
7
Twice I have found wallets with their full contents intact, one on the sidewalk and the other in a shopping cart in a parking lot. In both cases I made calls and tracked down the owners based on their IDs. Both offered me some money - either $20 or $40, I don't remember exactly which. This was around 2003 or 2005 so that was a bit more money than it is today. In both cases I accepted the money, not as a way to enrich myself (the wallets had significantly more in them), but to make up for my time. Returning a wallet is the right thing to do, but it's also the right thing for the person who lost to wallet to compensate the do-gooder for his efforts.
8
Twice I found expensive cell phones and called to return them to owner. But, I don't see why one should return found money so that the Transit Police can have it a few months down the road. Either the money goes to the person who lost it or the finder. Why the Transit Police??
8
@JB, I disagree. It’s always nice to have someone make the offer, I suppose, but I would decline. I think it’s wrong to take a cash reward for doing the right thing. A simple “think you” is all that’s needed. If the person is picking up the item, they might bring a bottle of wine or some cookies or something fifty, because that is good manners. But Cash? Ugh. No.
I found an expensive iPhone and a wallet (with cash, credit cards and ID) in in a grocery cart, and turned it in to the market’s lost and found. As I checking out with my groceries, the young woman who’d lost the items rushed in, asking desperately whether anyone had turned in her things. She and the fellow she was with were so young, and so rattled at the loss. Breathless and panicked. They thanked me when I told them that I’d given the stuff to a manager. But should I have expected a reward for that? Of course not. I told her to purchase a handbag.
10
Donate the money to a good cause. That's what I've done when I've found money on the ground. Maybe to someone sleeping in the cold subway station who clearly seems to be in need.
7
One of my earliest memories is of my father running up subway stairs to return money to a young woman who had dropped it. When I found some money this year, I gave it to the Salvation Army.
8
Well...I gave my boyfriend $40 to run down to the store and get me a bottle of vodka. The vodka total was less than $40. He always brings me the change and the receipt. He brought me the change I would have gotten if I had given him a hundred dollar bill. Which I hadn't. I did think about it for a few days, but I didn't mention it in the end.
He is still my boyfriend.
2
@Nadia Hey, Nadia, It's all over between us. You asked me once to go out and get you a bottle of vodka. On the way back from the store I thought I'd have a little fun so I handed you the change from a $100 and you said nothing. I figured you hadn't noticed and let it go. But now I realize I've been played for a sucker long enough.
PS Kenny Becker is a pseudonym, obviously.
9
My take on found cash is simple: if there is a way for me to identify the owner and/or for the owner to identify the cash, I will attempt to return it. Otherwise no. So for example when I found a wallet with cash in it, I contact the owner and returned it. When I found an envelop with money in a grocery store, I notified the manager so anyone reporting that they had lost money could contact me. I also notified the branch of the financial institution identified on the envelop. I was able to return the money. However, when I found a $100 bill on a downtown sidewalk, I kept it.
Incidentally in both instances the individual reclaiming their cash, offer to give me a reward, which I declined. The offer was enough.
15
I agree - the offer is always enough!
7
I have lost cash in a public area and when I called, was lucky enough to have had someone find it and return it to the owners of the property who returned it to me. I knew it was a long shot to call but it couldn't hurt and in this case I got my money back. I would never keep money I found. I would always turn it in. It might be stolen from there but at least I would have done the right thing. Perhaps there are cameras on the subway that would help find the owner.
6
I found a plain envelope with about $300 in cash on the sidewalk - I looked around - nobody nearby. So I gave $250 to UNICEF and took myself out for a nice meal.
7
Getting ready to deplane once and the man in front of me stood draping his suit jacket over the seat in front of me, his very full wallet fell from a breast pocket onto the floor. He did not notice. I picked it up, opened it seeing easily 15 credit cards. I thought about taking just one as that would not be noticed as I would then shop National Airport for the Holidays. I let the thought pass, asked him if his name was so-and-so from one of the cards, he said 'yes' with a quizzical look. I said "your credit cards" handing him his wallet. He thanked me sheepishly and left. I think he was rather lame about it since he imagined himself one of those flawless dandies never making a mistake.
2
@JEM But why did you even open it? You knew who dropped it.
16
I‘ve left or lost money in public spaces and gotten it back, I‘ve found money and given it back or to a lost and found. Both ways it was a feel very good kind of experience. And nice to learn that Confucious and Aristoteles have more than one fan.
7
Several years ago i was sent by a hunt club to mow an adjoining property's tall native grass in checker board strips so hunters and dogs could flush seeded Quail and Pheasant from the unmowed squares.The field was more than 100 acres, about a tenth the size of Central Park. I opened a gate and found many bills, mostly tens and twentys scattered in the tall grass. When I finished I returned to the club and asked the manager to put the money in an envelope and see if it belonged to the owner of the property. More than a week later I asked the Manager if the money belonged to the property owner. Yes , and the owner said he thought he had lost more than what was in the envelope.
4
All the money in the world can’t buy class.
10
Turn over to the authorities where it will be either filched or spent on bureaucratic procedures to maintain it? Better to donate it. You've already spent more than $90 worth of your time looking for the owner. You did not ask for this assignment.
13
I am flummoxed.
Cash is the ultimate bearer instrument.
"any person who finds an item worth $20 or more has 10 days to return it to the owner or report it to the authorities. Fail to do so, and you face a maximum fine of $100 and up to six months in prison."
Cash is not an item. It is legal tender for all debts public and private. The paper it is printed on belongs to the US Gov't. If you find it without identifying information, it is yours. To say otherwise is ludicrous beyond belief. For every $1 returned through the 'authorities' there are $1,000s not and of the $1 I would be shocked if $0.50 did not wind up in the 'authorities'' pocket.
13
@Bottom Feedermlm. mlm
Nice try. The NY law actually refers to "property" and not an "item." Cash is certainly included in the meaning of "property."
Note that the law provides in Section 254 that after a specified period of time the unclaimed property shall be delivered to the finder.
3
Years ago I found an expensive item on a bench overlooking the beach near were I live. I left a note pinned to the bench which I replaced twice over the course of two weeks. I put a note in the local newspaper, I placed a note on craigslist and finally, I dropped it off at the police property office. No one ever responded or claimed the item.
I sold the item on ebay for about $8000 and bought my wife a gold necklace to replace one that had been stolen and under insured several years previously.
To this day, I hope that watch was not a "parting gift" left by someone who went for a final swim.
5
@SA Well, even if it was, I'm sure that person would be pleased to see what it was eventually used for, wouldn't they?
3
@SA did you remember to pay income tax on it? :P
If they end up auctioning it, I wonder how much it costs to buy $90.
15
I was walking the dog one morning and found $8700 in 100 dollar bills in an unmarked envelope. I returned the money with the assist of my neighborhood homeowners group.
Here's the rub: The money's rightful owner took the money, said "thank you", and that was it. No offer of reward, not even a 6 pack of beer. And, while I didn't return the money in hopes of a reward, I would have at least liked the opportunity to refuse one.
Is there no social or moral obligation to offer a reward for the return of something of such value? Return my $20 and I will say "thank you". Return nearly $10,000 and I personally will do much more. I'm not saying that experience this will affect my behavior the next time I find money, (this was not the first or even the 4th time I have found and returned hundreds of dollars), but it might just.
41
@Sean No, there is no such moral obligation, unless you had to make extraordinary efforts, or spend money yourself, to return the money.
As Seneca said,
“What can be more base than for a man to consider what it costs him to be a good man, when virtue neither allures by gain nor deters by loss […] You will gain the doing of it – the deed itself is your gain. Nothing beyond this is promised. If any advantage chance to accrue to you, count it as something extra. The reward of honourable dealings lies in themselves. “
(On Benefits, Book IV)
12
I wonder how old that law is. $20 seems like a low threshold to make someone go the trouble of tracking down an police officer or transit official. And $100 seems like a small fine for keeping, say a $10,000 piece of jewelry.
5
I wonder how long it has been since the statute was written that set the cutoff value at $20. There ought to be an inflation adjustment.
3
Coincidentally, my family experienced a similar dilemma just a week ago. My college senior found a large sum of money in a parking lot in upstate New York. When she texted and asked what she should do - I told her to turn it in to the police. She did. The process took about 30 minutes of waiting. Though my daughter completed paperwork, she was not given a receipt for the money.
The next night at a party, I brought up the lost money in conversation. One woman listening said she would NOT have turned it in, but instead would have "paid it forward." Her rationale (or fear) is that the police will just keep it. Paying it forward never occurred to me (and I have more faith in a properly functioning police bureaucracy). Also, paying it forward seems flawed. The donor gets satisfaction from making the donation - thus is benefiting from someone else's money. Besides, I couldn't help but think that the money my daughter found belonged to some poor soul cashing their precious paycheck and now couldn't make their rent. Paying it forward is not going to fix that problem.
10
@Noname At the same time, it will cost your daughter much more in an effort to identify the rightful owner, assuming there are no useful clues. Paying it forward (children's shelter, for example) has a shot at producing a good.
2
@Malby But turning it in to the police costs the daughter little in terms of effort. And if I lost money in a public place, I'd check with police first to see if anybody turned it in. They might have desperately needed the money.
5
Jewish Talmudic law has strict requirements on the obligation to return lost objects. There are detailed specifications from how unique the object is - whether it can be identified by the owner, and whether the finder can assume that the one who lost it still expects to get it back. We assume that when someone loses cash - because it cannot be uniquely identified - they gave up on it, and it belongs to whoever finds it.
8
@Nomi But they can identify the amount, what it was contained in, and the place it was lost. There can't be other people who lost, say, $575 dollars in a green wallet under the park bench by the oak tree with the broken branch on the afternoon of Dec 3. Then there's the $20 bill dropped on the street--yeah, that belongs to the finder.
1
@Freddd I believe you are correct. Money that is in some form of container (envelope, rubber band, wallet) and can be identifiable is regarded differently than money with no identifying features.
It makes sense that we would gladly return an "item" (a diamond ring, for example) to someone who could provide some descriptive features, but we might not jump to hand it over to someone who claimed it but did not provide a description. Money might be more like that category.
2
How do the authorities confirm the person claiming the cash is the one who lost it? And why don't your philosophers discuss the concept of 'innocent discovery.' If I buy a used coat and find a diamond ring in the pocket, it's mine. Found items are 'innocent discoveries' and, as such, should have no obligation to be returned. Now, if I stole the money/object or I suspect it is possibly associated with criminal activity...
7
The money is yours. For the stranger, it's a valuable lesson about being careless with cash and an effective means of learning to not let it happen again.
7
@oakbranch
Re lost camera
1. Tag each camera, GPS, etc., with your name, address, and phone number. Easiest way to do it is to use your address stickers (the ones you use on envelopes you mail), cut them down to minimum size and stick it on a flat surface on the item.
I even do this for the cases with my eyeglasses in them.
2. On every memory card you use with your camera the first exposure should be of a card/sheet of paper with your name, address, and phone number.
Doing the above significantly increases your chances of recovering something that you lost.
10
One night in Sherman Oaks, CA, I stopped to use the Wells Fargo ATM. There was a $20 bill hanging out. Absolutely nobody was around. I took it, concluded my own business, then noticed a woman waiting in a bus shelter. I walked over, explained how I found the $20 and asked if she wanted it. She declined. I put it in my pocket and headed over to my car. I guess she thought I was a suspicious character and up to something. I hope the author's $90 gets back to the right person.
2
@Michael - I would guess that in this case, the bank could have found the transaction before yours that dispensed cash and identified who lost it. I can understand a woman in a bus shelter not wanting to get involved with someone offering her $20. :)
8
I found $150 on a sidewalk. No one was around. I called the police, but no one reported having lost that sum. The next day, at the airport, a folded $20 bill flew in front of me while on a crosswalk, blown there from wherever by passing cars. No way to find its owner either.
I called the cops again a week or so later, who seemed wholly unconcerned, and then donated the $170 to the Interfaith Council, which operates a food bank and community shelter.
12
The money was loose in his pocket, not in a wallet, where you would find identifying information. For one thing, that's not a very bright thing to do if you're getting on the subway in NYC. I say it's yours. As some folks have mentioned, I would give it to a homeless person or give some waitperson a big tip.
2
@aginfla I'm from New York as well and I know the safest play for my cash its NOT in my wallet. In fact, in some situations (like on the subway) I will split my cash into two piles. That way if I am robbed I hand the guy the lesser value.
2
Hah! Growing up in NYC in the seventies, me and my friends always put a $10 in our pants pocket, and all the rest of our money in our shoes. That way when we got mugged on the subway we had something to give him, lest he stab or shoot us for wasting his time.
3
I found a $50 bill on the sidewalk once, right outside a building well known in the neighborhood as a place where drug deals took place at all hours of the day and night. I was really short of money at the time, and I pocketed the cash without too many qualms. Maybe if I’d come across it outside a kindergarten or a social service agency I’d have done something different, but I didn’t feel too bad about buying groceries with what was probably somebody’s drug money.
12
Brief comment. Years ago I was waiting at an ATM at O'Hare. When the person before me left, there was a $20 still in the slot. I got my money and said to myself that if I can find her I will give the money back. She was in the news store and I did. She had no reaction. Not even a thank you. On the other hand, I was pleased that where once that $20 would have made a big difference to me, now I could do the right thing without a thought.
25
I found a wallet with several large denomination bills visible left on the airplane seat in front of me a few years ago. I yelled loudly for passengers and crew to stop the Amish couple that had just left the plane.
The woman replied: " what did I lose this time". They had no credit cards and only cash, so were glad to get the wallet.
16
I’ve lost money and I have found money. Over the years it’s worked out to be pretty even.
18
Almost seventy years ago, when I was eight years old, I opened
a book that was on a shelf in my grandparents basement. I was
attracted by the title, "Poor Little Rich Girl", since three words of the title described me: poor, little, girl. I heard my grandmother scream as three one-hundred dollar bills fluttered
to the ground, a fortune in our family. As I later found out, my
grandfather had saved over a period of years the money to support his occasional trips to the neighborhood saloon. I wish I could say to him, "I'm so sorry, Pop Pop. Let me treat you to a drink to celebrate your sense of irony."
25
Someone who hasn't figured out how to keep $90 in cash on his person without losing it is someone for whom $90 is not a big deal. If it were $900 it would be a bigger deal but the lesson still applies--there are ways to move $900 around safely via checks, debit cards, etc. If it were $9,000 or more in cash it would be "too good to be true" as in this is drug money or counterfeit money and if I use it or give it to someone else to use, I or they might get in heap big trouble fast. So the legal options of turning it in start looking pretty good. Thirty five years ago I found a $20 bill blowing across Harvard Square and I gave it to a nearby street person without much thought. Inflation adjusted that's about the same sum. I have on two or three occasions (over the decades) found *wallets* with ID and cash and in those cases was able to contact the owner. These sorts of events tend to occur more frequently for the public transportation crowd, once you're stuffed into a commuting suburb you hardly see people outside of a car, let alone their dribbles of cash. In the late 70s San Francisco it was common for passed out homeless drunks to be seen with money half out of one shirt or jacket pocket. This apparently was an undercover sting and people who touched the money--even to push it down out of view--were busted. It was in the local press so if you saw someone passed out and about to lose some cash you knew to stay away. Uninformed passersby often called ambulances.
4
Yes; you must follow the statute that you cite. I remember this being a question on my bar exam many decades ago. Naturally, most people who find money, keep it and most people who lose money do not expect to recoup it. Morally, the best thing to do is to donate it to a worthy cause. Take a look at the equitable doctrine of "cy pres" which allows for a re-routing of found money to the next best thing, other than the true owner.
Let's talk about what you don't do. As in announcing the amount.
21
Who knows? That dropped cash might have been a setup to test the integrity of the reporter with more than one person in on the scheme. People visiting Russia are warned of a popular scam where some cash or a wallet is left on the ground, or dropped, as bait. If someone picks up the "lost" prize they are immediately accosted by the scammers who accuse the person of theft or even simply rob them. Employers, or anyone tasked with testing the integrity of a person, will frequently leave a small amount of money, coins even, laying about for the person to find and will watch how the person reacts. Most people will pick the coin up and slip it in their pocket, others won't. Guess who fails the job interview?
The author can probably get another article out of this by describing the number of people who try to claim the money as theirs and their various stories.
I think a better question is would you return, turn in to the authorities, or keep money that you knew was ill-gotten.
Assuming one could avoid the Columbian necktie of course.
1
Philosophically speaking, the moral thing to do is to make an effort to return the money. Economically speaking, there's only so much effort you can make before your effort becomes more valuable than the money you found. Your time is worth something. Presumably the New York Times committed money to Niraj Chokshi writing this article. Is that time worth more than 90 dollars? How much work did Chokshi miss waiting for that next train?
The reverse is also true. How much value does $90 hold for the person who lost the money in the first place? Almost no one ever came back for lost money at a store where I worked. Searching for lost money is worth some effort but eventually the time is worth more than the value the person places on the money. $90 isn't really worth that much to most people. You lose a wedding ring though? The person is going to spend a lot more time searching for the lost item.
In both situations though, you're eventually going to find equilibrium. People on both sides will give up eventually even if it takes a really long time. Possibly a lifetime. Think about missing children and cold cases. Morality can only take you so far. I would notify the MTA and left it go.
1
No where in the article or in the comments has anyone said "Finder Keepers, Losers Weepers." In NYC? Really?
11
The poorer you are the harder the test.
28
Sometimes the opposite is true! That’s how some rich people stay rich!!
6
A word on behalf of avarice and uncompromising self-centeredness.
Many years ago, I was walking down a windswept street, leaves and detritus skittering about, nothing out of the ordinary, when I happened to glance down and noticed that in the midst of everything blowing about my feet were scads of $20 bills. Not all – there’s a dollar, there’s a five, but here come more $20s. I snatched up as many as I could, even those that had found their way into the gutter.
This continued until I reached the crosswalk where, placed neatly upon the very edge of the curb as though deliberately, was a stack of cash, the obvious source for the money that blew down the street. As I picked it up I heard HEY! coming from a nearby bed of shrubbery. There, a disheveled young man stood relieving himself into a bush. He mumbled incoherently in my direction, swaying back and forth.
Look, said I, there’s goes some money! Which indeed was true – there was still cash flying all about – and distracted him long enough for me to make my getaway.
I have every reason to believe that the money I literally stumbled upon was ill-gotten gain possessed by a person so addled he thought curbside was a good place to stash his cash while he went to take a pee.
My take, close to $500. I have no qualms whatsoever. I used the money toward a nice room for my upcoming Disney World vacation.
10
@Brian Really? Drunkenness (or whatever was going on with that guy) is equivalent to ill-gotten? Seems to me that there are many reasons that might lead to someone leaving a stack of cash in a dumb place, none necessarily connected to the origin of that money. I think your salve is cynically self-serving.
6
@Brian , that is absolutely terrible! You have ruined the good mood I had going here. How do you know it wasn’t the guy’s pay for work completed, or a prize or poker pot he won (good chance of that, given his boozing), or something else not “ill gotten”? You took advantage of someone unable to take care of himself.
7
I once found $120 up against the curb of a downtown Chicago street. There was no one around and no businesses nearby. For the next day or so, I tormented myself with a similar mental dilemma that the author described in his piece. I thought about what I could buy for myself or for a family member or about leaving big tips etc.
Ultimately, I decided to give it to a homeless man whose path I crossed frequently. He sold water in the summer and newspapers during the winter. Unlike others, he wasn't aggressive.
I had the bills folded in such a way that he wouldn't know immediately how much I was giving. It was incredible how hard it was for me to find the words as I gave it to him. He responded with a kind and gentle "Thank you".
Normally I do not give out money, but I concluded the following rule which I still adhere to: "If it's from the street, it should remain in the street."
45
I have found 2 wallets in the last 4 years with lots of cash (2k and 1k)and returned them promptly. December 2018 found a wallet with $2000 cash and 7 credit cards next to my car in covered parking lot of large upscale shopping center. Was able to get a name and called my niece to go on Facebook to get person’s info. She found an address 100 miles from us. I decided to call shopping center security ,tell them situation,and have the owner call me if she contacted them. i refused to turn wallet over to the security guard. 30 minutes later the owner called me,and we promptly met up at the security office ,and I turned over the wallet with all contents. The owner said that when she discovered the loss ,she decided to believe there are good people in the world,and bet that her wallet would be returned to her intact. That comment ,her heartfelt thanks and hugs were all the payback I needed.
Ms. Atheist
25
@Angelina Arroyo (Please publish my name as A. Arroyo as I am a private person) Ms. Arroyo, kindly ask a friend or relative about how to configure your account.
25
Come on! Just play it forward!
You find cash that is virtually impossible to return to its rightful owner.
Whatever you do with it now will prime the economic pump for everybody.
Give it to New York State. Give it to a charity. Buy your kid an unexpected present.
All's good, and people will be helped with whatever option you choose.
The universe decided the decision was yours to make. It really doesn't care what the decision is. Nothing "bad" can come from any alternative (unless, for example, you buy illegally drugs or something).
Stop the analysis paralysis. Make someone happy. If not you, someone, anyone, else!
10
"Last year, the [transit] agency returned about $127,000 in lost cash to owners" Holy smoke, this is the real story here. Not only is that's an amazing sum of cash, but it's cash which was turned in and then ever so optimistically and successfully claimed! I love this aspect of the story! And that's just the transit agency--what about the NYPD? And how much is not claimed? I guess another story in this regard would be fun.
52
As any Kantian or virtue ethicist will tell ya, most people fulfill neither their moral obligations nor their inclinations toward good behavior. That officer you give it to will most likely pocket that cash, for one reason or another. Since we have no way of knowing what that person intends to do with that cash (maybe he needs it to feed his family, maybe he’s an alcoholic) and we DO know what we’d do with it, the consequentialist view wins here: an assured positive outcome rather than a guilt driven act of wishful thinking. Assuming, of course, we would actually do what we ought to.
2
@Arezu Unlikely that the police officer pockets the cash. There's a public record documenting the police's receipt of the funds, and the eventual return of the funds to the owner or, if the owner does not claim the money, to the person who turned it in. And, if neither person claims the money, I'm sure there is an escheat process in place where the money goes into government coffers.
I'd say go the route: "...the person who turns in money or a valuable item may be able to keep it if it goes unclaimed." Turn it in, get a receipt, wait the ninety-days and get it back with a clear conscience. The odds of anybody claiming it is somewhere near zero. But even if they do, you'll still be able to milk the subject matter for at least one more follow-up article in the N.Y. Times.
P.S. Depending on your level of paranoia, there's always the possibility that the guy was a devious competitor trying to ensnare you in an embarrassing criminal case.
1
And here I've always thought that the adage "finders keepers losers weepers" was the law. Not that I've ever gotten to profit by following it, except for an occasional penny, nickel, dime or quarter found on the sidewalk. Howver, with the advent of advanced age, I now pass the pennies by.
6
My wallet dropped out of my pocket on the M(8 bus, the next week i got a call from the MTA lost and found at Peen Station, I went to pick it up and everything, to the last dollar and credit card was there.
24
What you might do is put out the word that like you did by printing this story that you want to return the money. You know where you were when it happened. Wait and see if someone's says where, what stop on the train it was where they lost said $90. Now you are somewhat committed. Then you have to make arrangements to meet this person. Several things come into play. You thought the person who lost it was male. So that eliminates half the population. Then you thought you might have seen a wisp of the person which suddenly makes your first idea somewhat ambiguous. I would say if the person can say which station it was they thought they lost the money as a helpful tool. However, that is still going to be hard for the person to remember exactly. It almost sounds like a lucky guess. You still have the ethical problem. And on that I do believe it is up to you and your conscience. I am not sure that really helps. Good luck.
1
I found $200 near an ATM in San Francisco back in 2009. I used it to buy saddlebags for my Harley and a Middle Eastern dinner.
I am going to donate it to anyone with a reasonable chance of extracting that fool from the White House.
19
Donate the money to an out of work or unpaid Federal Employee and the karmic universe will repay you in spades
7
@Lawton What if the owner is an out-of-work federal employee who borrowed the money from his friends? She is doing the right thing, although she will probably be inundated with false claims.
1
The old newspaper tradition (according to Hildy Johnson) was to take that money and put it in your hat band. Glad to hear times have changed.
Not everyone reads the Times. Consider posting this on Twitter, the Post and the Daily News too.
2
Get over it ....finders keepers.
Give it back your a saint.
3
In my life I have had two great finds. First $400 in a library book. That was so long ago, it would probably be like finding $800 today. I went to the head librarian and said that I just found a lot of money, I am taking it home and here is my phone number in case someone calls and can say how much it was. No one ever called and eventually I gave it in generous tips to surprised servers at lunch counters.
The second find was a couple of years ago. A gorgeous diamond ring on the women’s room sink at Whole Foods. Again I went to someone in charge, told them I found a ring and gave them my number.
About a month later I got a call from a very relieved young woman who said the ring had been a gift from her father.
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Many years ago, I was on my way to see a friend's band in the East Village. Got off the train, walked about a half block and found a wallet. I picked it up, looked around, saw no one, put it in my purse thinking I would look at the ID later and contact the person.
On my way home, I remembered the wallet. I took it out, opened it to find over $100 cash inside, a used ticket stub to a movie from a week ago and a business card from a tattoo parlor in the Bronx. No ID at all. I ended up keeping the money (there were no social media platforms back then where I could've posted a found item). I was so broke at the time, it really saved me.
6
We once mailed a wallet we found at the edge of a pond, intact, to the owner. He thanked us with a generous gift card, far more than what was in the wallet. His note saiid he'd lost it duck hunting the previous fall and his gratitude reflected not just knowing what had happened to it but also getting back the many things in it he had forgotten were there.
A few years ago I found a valuable shotgun at a trailhead. I posted a note with my number but no one ever called to claim it. I asked a friend in the county attorney's office if I should turn it into law enforcement. His reply was no to, even though I could legally claim it in a year, a gun that nice would disappear.
Not quite your story but trying to do the right thing, waiting to see if the man came back, offering anothet chance here, is sometimes all you can do.
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Curious when Section 252 was adopted - $20 seems small to me - what would inflation make that amount today? I think my personal threshhold would be more like $50.
And it seems like it ought to be returned to the finder if unclaimed - they have more claim to it than the government.
2
@Wesley: Not quite so, as there's the ancient English common law doctrine of escheat, wherein all sorts of personal and real property of a decedent reverts to the state (way back, to the crown) when the owner dies without any heirs or a will.
I've been finding lost items over the years. Twice I've found wallets, once in a playground and another time near a sidewalk, which conveniently included the individual's name and address, so I was able to return the wallets, with all cards and cash intact, to the rightful owners at their homes. Another time I found a wallet underneath the seat of a movie theater, discovered a phone number that indicated the owner was an out-of-towner, and phoned the owner to inform him that I had his wallet. He drove by later to pick it up. All who got back their wallets with cash and cards intact only responded with a cursory thank you. Myself, I would have issued a very heartfelt thanks.
Interestingly enough, the only time I received more than a brief thank you in response was when I picked up a junior high school boy's papers that were scattered all over a nearby street. Based on the name on the papers, I was able to locate the boy to whom the papers belonged. He was grateful to get the papers back and in fact dropped by with a written thank you card and a potted plant as a gesture of appreciation.
By the way, I think it's very important that found cash gets into the hands of a responsible authority. Once as a twentysomething, I got back more change than I should have at a restaurant. I summoned the head waiter and gave him the extra $20. He said, "Oh, okay," and quickly pocketed the $20. I strongly suspect the $20 never made its way back to the restaurant's till.
3
Years ago I went to an ATM and requested $200. The machine dispensed the cash, but the amount was not debited from my account. Would you have turned the money in to the bank?
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@Henry Rosenberg I think that would be the right thing to do. If the money came out of the ATM but not your account it belongs to the shareholders. Of course, if it's a credit union - you're one of the shareholders!
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@Henry Rosenberg
Yes. My philosophy is this. Even if it's only 1 cent, if it's yours, fight for it. Conversely, even if it's a million dollars, if it's not yours, treat it like a rock and return it to the rightful owner.
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@Henry Rosenberg Of course, you should've returned it. It wasn't yours and came directly from a source you knew. It was not the definition of found money.
You kept it though, didn't you?
3
I don't think $90 cash is an amount worth spending a lot of time trying to return. Just think -- if your typical hourly rate of compensation for your work is $40 an hour, spending an hour on this matter (online, trying to find out what to do, calling up transit or police or other agencies) eats up about half the amount. Not that everyone should expect to be compensated for all work done as a good samaritan, but rather to point to the value of time involved.
One of the dumbest things I've ever seen in attempts to find the owner of a lost item -- I was hiking on a local trail, in a park adjacent to a large urban area. Someone found a camera on the side of the trail. Instead of contacting park authorities and turning it in to the park lost and found department, which would have been the appropriate thing to do, the person who found the camera just took the camera and set it down in the middle of the trail, saying "whoever lost it will probably come back and look for it, so I'll put it here for them." Well duh, anyone else who sees it and lacks an ethical bone, will figure "free camera!" and take it home. And that's exactly what occurred. Within literally minutes of setting it down in the middle of the trail someone came and took it. And I doubt she was the one who lost it.
7
@Oakbranch, I'll put mittens on top of posts, etc. so that the owners may see them more easily, but I would certainly never treat something valuable that way!
5
Flying home from Newark after Christmas, my son left his backpack at the security area. We noticed it missing when we got to our gate, and backtracked to Security and asked them. They had it locked in a locker and gave it back, but his $50 Christmas cash was missing.
13
You should ask what the serial numbers on all the bills, in each denomination, and from which city's Federal Reserve Bank each bill was issued. If a reader can tell you, I believe that person is the true owner of the cash you found.
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@Meir
I hope you're joking. Just how many people anywhere would know the serial numbers, et al. that you would require to prove ownership of lost bills?
3
@madlar
You mean you don't write them down? I always memorize them.
(Yes, I was joking.)
4
There is no moral ambiguity here whatsoever. Follow the law. It is impossible to return the $90 to return to owner. Therefore, you are legally obligated to return it to the authorities. But what do we mean by "the authorities?" This is the legal area of escheatment. Ultimately, it belongs to New York State (assuming that NY law works the same way as the other states where I have resided.) Delaware rakes in over a half billion $ per year on escheatment.
The moral case for following the law here is as compelling as it is for paying the correct amount of state income tax. So, what are you waiting for? Help close NY's yawning deficit and do the right thing!
2
This is so much fun. I have found wallets with money, credit cards and cool stuff. I have found brief cases, phones and all sorts of stuff in my 43 years of working. I have really enjoyed the happiness/joy of the person that lost it getting a call and delivery. There is much joy that can come from being a good steward of others lost property. Not much joy comes from keeping things when you know where they belong. Joy also comes from trying to return "stuff" even if you are unsuccessful. Then there is also joy from being able to benefit from it after a good effort but no success.
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I once left over $1,000 in cash the back of a taxi cab. I called the company and the driver came back to my location later in the day and delivered the cash back to me. It was being used to pay for medical care and travel expenses for my daughter, and I was so grateful for the honesty and integrity of everyone involved.
Kindness, I think, should be the standard.
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@Music Man
please tell me you rewarded the cab driver. ten percent seems fair.
14
My daughter and I were walking to school and we found $500 under a car. Given the denominations I think someone had just returned from the ATM and dropped it all when leaving the car. The money was wet so it had been there a few hours by that point. We picked it up. I later returned to leave a note on the car but it was gone. I waited a week to see if I'd see the car again, but I never did. I called the local police a week later and no one had called it in missing. We then chose a charity together and donated it there.
15
This is NOT hard, you give it to a charity, NOT a political one.
I suggest The Salvation Army, they do the most work helping the homeless.
3
@Sparky Jones The Salvation Army lobbies against equal employment laws due to their views on homosexuality.
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My sister bought a $5 dollar handbag at a flee market -- took it home and found an envelope tucked inside ... $14,000 cash. That was 1982 -- The money is long gone as well as the handbag .. I'm almost sure of it..
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@Aaron That's some luck
4
@Aaron That among is worth about $37,000 today, according to the still working federal CPI calculator.
1
@Aaron: Since she at least should have paid gift tax on it.
Two stories:
---- I found three one hundred dollar bills at the top of an escalator at an airport. I called around to ask if anyone had lost money. A few cards said they had lost the money but none could identify the denomination. I turned the money in to the airport's lost and found office, which called me three months later to say no one claimed the bills and I could go get them.
----I was having lunch with a colleague and mentioned the money story. He said he had found a gold cufflink and tried to turn it in to the building's lost and found office. He was told the cufflink would be held briefly but eventually sold. He decided to keep the cufflink. I described my lost cufflink, which was the one he had found, and he gave it to me later. I paid for both of our lunches.
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@Edward Bash Lucky man.
7
I found $40 on my way to the gym. I was the only person on that block. I donated it to my church and added $40 of my own.
This year I won a lawsuit. I have not seen the money yet, but once I have it, I will donate $10,000 to a cancer charity to help people who are less fortunate.
28
My nine year old daughter found $10.00 on the floor of a Starbucks last month, We asked around to see if it was anyones. No-one claimed the money. I told her she could keep it because it was no-ones in the store. She was pretty happy about it. Perhaps we should have done a forensic investigation or called in the FBI. Not sure we made the right decision.
21
I was grad student interning at a nonprofit theater back in 1980, residing in the City during the four-month internship. Because of poor planning on everyone's part, my internship was initially underfunded. One day, I was on a fairly deserted 14th St. subway platform with just a couple of dollars in my pocket and not sure how I was going to pay for my next meal, when I looked down and saw $17 just lying there. I think I may have asked someone at a distance if they dropped any money, but to be honest, I didn't go too far out of my way. I was enormously happy and relieved to have had the good luck to stumble on that relatively small amount of money, which actually helped me get through a tough period. Aside from the ethical considerations, I'm glad to hear that $20 is the threshold amount for turning found money in to the authorities.
32
I have always considered lost cash and found cash to be just luck, good or bad. If I lost money, I would be a bit upset with myself, but consoled by the thought that someone would find it and use it. I would not expect to see it again!
Same with found money. It's fungible--unless it's in a envelope with a name on it, you can't identify the owner.
I also never carry much cash.
26
@JR That's one way to soothe your conscience, if any.
1
Something very similar happened to me visiting Vancouver, BC, last year. I spotted a bill under a seat on a water taxi. I picked it up and discovered it was CAD$100. I had no idea who had been sitting in the seat. I picked it up intending to turn it in to a transit official or an information desk. I searched and searched and couldn't find anyone to give it to. I was perplexed: $100 is a lot of money. I didn't feel right about keeping it; I didn't know how to get it back to the owner; and we were returning home early the next day. I ended up "sharing the wealth"--changing it and donating some to charity and the rest as handouts to homeless individuals.
23
I found $243 on the sidewalk on my way home from the movies one evening. There were no other pedestrians on the block and no open businesses -- no one/place to ask. The question I asked myself was, "what would I want someone to do if I had dropped the money?" Easy -- I would want the finder to turn it in.
So I took it home and called the police the next day. I was told I should bring it in to the station, and if no one claimed it in a year, I could have it.
So I did. They put a notice in the paper that a sum of money had been found at that location, but no one claimed it, and a year later I took it home. Bought my son a new computer.
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@Seabiscute - Tell me where I can get my son a computer for $243!
11
@East/West amazon has a bunch in that range.
1
@East/West
Cheap Windows laptop?
Found what looked to be a Fitbit at the 145th Street stop of the 1. No one was around. The MTA attendant was unconcerned and wouldn't take it, so I put it back exactly where I found it. I'm sure this story and variations are common.
5
@lvsogrss
see the camera-on-the-hiking-trail story above.
not smart what you did
4
$90 isn't enough for me to lie about to steal. Let us know again if you find more.
17
@MitchP Haha, I appreciate your honesty!
2
We once found over $500.00 in a cab. We asked the driver if he had lost anything from his front seat and he said no. He asked us to turn the money over to him, but instead we went to the nearest police precinct where they looked at us like we were crazy. In any case, the law was followed and after several months had elapsed without anyone claiming the money, I was able to legally claim it at 1 PP. The big question is whether or not we would have been as ethical if it were a lot more money!
27