Forum menu
Can someone settle this argument for me please? If, say, you had a friend who found a coin of small denomination (say 5p) im the street, at night. Say the street was deserted?
1. Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck?*
2. Press on, leaving the lost lucre where it lies?
3. Take it with the intention of returning to rightful owner via the police, so quickly establish a record of your identifying yourself as having the item with a view to handing it in?
* Fivepence piece is five pennies, so 5x luck seems possible? Note - the rhyme does not say you must keep the coin/s, simply that you shall have good luck. So presumably the ideal route is to combine (1) and (3**)? (2) is not an option as he already has possession of the coin.
**The only problem is that his local police station is often unstaffed so it would be a 16 mile round trip to deliver the lost coinage to a larger station. Will this good deed buy him some karma, or should he just suck up the journey cost so incurred? Knowing that he did the right thing? I suppose he could always put the coin back roughly where he found it? But that seems a messy end to things. Almost as if the natural process has been interrupted?
It's a tough one. And it raises the issue of scale. Is there a point at which it is 'less' moral to keep the coin? And which point? Surely 5p to a beggar is a considerable amount, yet to a millionaire not so much. But the law is about property, and property is property. And the law is the law.
Even though some say the law is an ass and that all property is theft. <---- These are unofficial definitions AFAIK.
4. Give it to charity? Cheeky, but feels good. A wild-card renegade option. Like Robin Hood! Illegal but feels moral as long as you don't get caught and kicked about.
But the law is about property, and property is property. And the law is the law. Even though some say the law is an ass and that all property is theft. Those are unofficial definitions AFAIK.
You forgot "possession is 9/10ths of the law", so if he picks it up by definition of [i]the law[/i] 4.5p is his and he can give the 0.5p away. That's my understanding anyway although believe it or not IANAL.
See also "finders keepers, losers weepers" although I'm less sure of when that applies.
Keep what you find, unless there is a serious possibility of returning the money to its rightful owner, no matter what the value.
I once found a £20 note in the grass on a ramble with my family. There wasn't a snowball's chance in hell that I was ever going to find out who lost it, so it paid for my tank of petrol.
On the other hand, I found a separate £20 note in the car park of my GP's surgery, and told the person at the desk that if someone came in and said they lost some money, I had it. Sure enough, 10 minutes after I arrived back at my house, the phone rang. An old gentleman had lost a £20 note in the car park.
really? 😆
Put it in a charity tin if it bothers you?
In principal (for me) for finding money in the street
Coins are mine, I'll kick a pound to make sure it;s not super-glued to pavement, and I'm about to be someones youtube prank.
Notes: I'll try to find someone nearby, outside a shop/bank I'll return it there, I've given the driver at Antur a tenner I found in the CP there once.
Finders keepers for anything under about 20 quid I reckon when just out on the street and no likely owner around. Different matter if it's in a more identifiable position and likely not been there long (say dropped cash under a cafe table or in a gym/swimming pool changing room). Still might not bother handing in 5p though!
Just give it to me, I'm going that way, I'll hand it in for you...
As SaxonRider says, if there's any chance that the rightful owner will be found hand it in.
I'd not spend anything I found on petrol though, I'd stick it in a charity tin.
I'm sorry, but all you lot taking option 1 are going to swing for what you've [url= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_by_finding ]done[/url]
Unless you find the right sort of pudding rather than a coin (as the law doesn't bother with trifles).
Notes/coins and didn't see who dropped it - fair game
Bundle of notes or anything else - take it to the police.
Found a girls purse th the basket of a Boris bike once. Stalked her on Facebook and arranged to drop it off at a police station halfway between us. Could have dropped it off in person but it had a fair amount of £££ in it so we figured it offered us a bit of protection in case she claimed we'd emptied it.
Amazing how much money I've picked up out in the Lake District, I guess it must get dropped at a similar rate to a town center, and an older/richer demographic taking money for the tea-room/pub, but less people passing and picking it up?
Unless you find the right sort of pudding rather than a coin (as the law doesn't bother with trifles).
Very good.
[img] 
[/img]
A lot depends on context. What matters is whether you could reasonably find the legitimate owner of the money. Even if you're handing it into a shop / police station or whatever... what can they reasonably do with it?
If you find a wallet with a driving license and £20 in it fairly obvious who's the £20 is. Even if you find a wallet with no ID and some money in it - the rightful owner would be able to describe the wallet in order to identify the money as theirs. But if you just find £20 - particularly in a busy environment - then you can declare that you've found it but you've no way of knowing if someone who comes forward to claim it has a legitimate claim. If you hand it into the police station - they've no way of determining a legitimate claim either.
The exception would be where a sum of money is very particular (£16.43) or very large where the circumstances of having or losing that specific sum can be described by, and therefore identify, the owner.
Working backwards through that back to the wallet with ID - theres the offence of 'Theft by finding' which is finding and keeping something where the owner is easily and reasonably findable. And it doesn't just apply to money. A friend of mine worked in a large shared studio facility - there'd been and old shopping trolley kicking around in the yard for years, since before they'd even taken up occupancy of the building. The was a party that night so he used it to get some crates of beer from the Off License - trundling the booze back the police pulled up and threatened him with Theft by Finding because the trolly had a Sainsbury's logo on it (under years of gunk) and he therefore had no excuse for not knowing who the legitimate owner of it was. But Theft By Finding only applies to obviously and easily traceable 'finds'.
Picked up a debit card in Bowness on Windemere a few weeks back..just up from a cash point machine ..the bank was closed at the time so called into the nearest retailer who took responsibility for it .. ..Im guessing it belonged to a Chinese tourist as the surname was Li.
The thing is with contactless that had the potential to be used a number of times up to a £ 30.00 limit without the failsafe of a security pin number being asked for !
However if I found a single note of any denomination lying in the street ..Im not that sure that I would hand it in and no way would I hand in a coin..but if I saw it being dropped then yeah I would bring it to the persons attention..
Went to Asda a few years ago, visited the cash machine and found a big bundle of notes sticking out of it.
Took it to the customer service desk and the shifty looking staff member basically stuck it on a shelf - seemed obvious she was going to keep it. Spoke to a manager after doing the shopping and insisted on putting the incident into the day book.
The mean part of me hopes she got fired...
A finder or indeed even a thief has better title to goods than everyone but the true owner . A theft by finding conviction depends on proof of dishonesty ie an act which is wrong by the standards of ordinary people and which the offender knows to de wrong by those standards. So you ain't a baddie if you find and keep something when you have no reasonable way of locating the owner .
If you find a significant quantity of cash or a wallet hand it in to the police they will normally keep it for a specified time then if unclaimed it is yours.
I've had three experiences of this one with cash where when I chased it after the time they gave it to me though I did discover if I hadn't chased it they would have transferred it to "police funds" one with a wallet where the pc was able to trace the loser and one with live blank ammunition where I handed it in fearfull it could be easily converted to improvised bullets and the PC wanted to fill in the form to return it to me if unclaimed.
Not read it all. But there is case law that says promptly putting it in a charity tin would not be theft.
Theft By Finding apparently applies is you accidentally get two chocolate bars out of a vending machine.
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-39119990 ]Risky business![/url]
I found some money in the street and reported it as it was a bit suspicious (someone had pointed it out to me as if they'd seen it fall out of my pocket - it hadn't as it turned out but I only realised this when I got home and found the money that was still there too).
Anyway, long story short 2 trips to the police station and I kept it - and kept within the law - and established a record of me obsessively staying within the law should it ever help an officer of the law to decide that I am in fact an upstanding law abiding pillar of the community.
So definitely do the round trip. Make sure you keep mentioning that it's just to keep things above board. Make sure you also go and pick up the 5p when you are legally allowed to do so.
Don't let the oiks on here know where you've handed it in to though, or you'll never see it again.
Just on that last point you made ..wouldnt it be all too easy to keep trying different Police stations to see if your money had been handed in ..even if you hadn't lost any !? 8)
Just on that last point you made ..wouldnt it be all too easy to keep trying different Police stations to see if your money had been handed in ..even if you hadn't lost any !?
Indeed - and I think it would be very difficult for them to prove you HADN'T lost it and charge you with theft even if someone else subsequently came forward and rightly claimed their lost money - except for when they checked your posts on web forums and found the details of your devious plan.
Mrs ws once found about 100 quid (cant rememeber the exact amount) at the end of a Morrisons checkout. She didnt like the look of the lad on the till apparently so took it home and rang the store immediately to give our details and how to contact us if someone came forward. 2 days later "a manager" said that a "Mrs Smith" had been in asking if someone had handed any money in? The "manager" could not give any details of where it had been found, how much, what time etc. He clearly was on the take and trying his luck, we never heard back from them again.
When i find cash in the street i give it to homeless people. Tempting to buy a coffee and cake of course, but i think i d get food poisoning for being dishonest.
Also about twice a week i find an abandoned euro in the gym locker as peolle forget to retrieve their coin from the lock. I save them up and give them to the cleaners there.
One of the richest people i know is really mean, i foumd 20e in the street walking with him, gave it to him for petrol money as he drove. Then we passed a homeless man so i said, why dont u give the 20e to him...there was no way that 20e was coming out of his pocket.
Seems to me that 5p is arguably 'abandoned' as per Murray's link (very droll btw). I found 20 quid walking out of Kings Cross once, me and a friend promptly blew it all on beer. We got one each :(.
A wallet (assuming some sort of ID) strikes me as rather different - there is a reasonable prospect of reuniting it with its owner. I think it's that (possibly defined as 'abandonment') rather than scale that's the distinction.
The rules are, you must always replace with something of greater value.
So pick up 5p replace with 10p or more
We recently found a phone and there was a couple of fivers in the back of the case, we waited for the phone call from the owner, popped an extra £10 in the back with a little note saying 'It's not always bad luck to lose things'
We dropped the phone off and slipped back into the night without a word
We dropped the phone off and slipped back into the night without a word
[img] 
[/img]
One of the richest people i know is really mean,
People don't get rich by giving money away.
I've a mate like that. He earns triple my salary and could peel an orange in his pocket. Buying lunch on work expenses he stocks up on bags of crisps etc to ensure he gets the absolute maximum out of his daily allowance. His party trick is being the last to buy a round, then timing his exit from the evening right before his round was due.
we waited for the phone call from the owner, popped an extra £10 in the back with a little note saying 'It's not always bad luck to lose things'
That's a very cool thing to do, fair play.
if you find money on the street and you keep it you are stealing.
I've a mate like that. He earns triple my salary and could peel an orange in his pocket. Buying lunch on work expenses he stocks up on bags of crisps etc to ensure he gets the absolute maximum out of his daily allowance. His party trick is being the last to buy a round, then timing his exit from the evening right before his round was due.
Pfffftttt amateur. The real skill is timing your round mid evening.
Too early - everyone wants a drink
Too late - your in a really shit nightclub and end up paying £80 for 16 Jager-bombs when all you really wanted was a glass of water.
Mid-evening - some people are pacing themselves and you've moved on from the vaguely respectable meeting point to Wetherspoons.
if you find money on the street and you keep it you are stealing.
I can't believe someone hasn't suggested bringing back hanging for this sort of thing....
I found 20 quid walking out of Kings Cross once, me and a friend promptly blew it all on beer. We got one each :(.
Found £20 on the doorstep on the way into a pub once.
We could have announced 'Has anyone lost £20?' loudly to a packed 10 o'clock, saturday night town centre pub clientele - but I think we'd have been over subscribed with offers.
So we decided the honourable thing to do was 'put it behind the bar'. Putting it behind the bar turned out to require quite deal of effort and commitment. It was the late 80s, beer was only 65p a pint, and it was already nearly closing time. We were quite tired and emotional when it was all over.
[i]if you find money on the street and you keep it you are stealing. [/i]
I found a tenner in the park on my way home once. As it wasn't on the street did I still steal it?
The real skill is timing your round mid evening.
That might've applied in my 20s. These days the only timing concern is getting to the pub in time for leftover pie after the darts & dominoes team have finished.
I can't believe someone hasn't suggested bringing back hanging for this sort of thing....
why, the current punishment not enough? Its not my opinion its the law of the UK.
Just on that last point you made ..wouldnt it be all too easy to keep trying different Police stations to see if your money had been handed in ..even if you hadn't lost any !?
It's a great plan, although the inclusion of time, date and place found on the found property forms means you still need a couple of lucky guesses.