Finders Is Not Keepers.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/28/no-thing-finders-keepers-police-warn-prosecute-shopper-pocketed/

What would you have done if you found a sum of money lying on the floor?

Pick it up and take it into the nearest store?

Pick it up and take it to the Police Station?

Or stuff it in your pocket, hoping that no one saw you?

[mallyh]

my grandson when small found £30 pounds on a shop floor just under a rack I was looking at, I told him to hand it in ,the next week I went in shop and asked if anyone had claimed it and was told yes but there was no thankyou or anything so I was a bit annoyed especially as the person was told a child had handed it in .

[hc4361]

It's an offence under The Theft Act 1968. As the local police stations are now closed to the general public I would make a telephone report and keep it safe at home for a month

[Mamyalynne]

I would have handed it in to the manager/customer service desk and ask that my details were retained.

[ToraToraTora]

quite right finders keepers is an urban myth. I would take it home and report it and give it back if claimed. I believe there is a period of time that you can keep it after if not claimed.

[rsvp]

Years ago I was leaving a nursing home after a visit and found a wad of unbanked cheques and cash valued at over 30K - handed it in, left details and never heard a thing - I suspect who ever I handed it in to took the credit!

[sunny-dave]

For a trivial sum I'd had it in and get a receipt.

For anything more (over a fiver?) I would have told the manager that I had found a sum of money & would be reporting it to the Police when I got home - I'd give them my name and address and get them to sign something saying that that I had reported the find to them.

No way would they either (a) get the money or (b) be told the value. I am honest - many other people are not ...

[Peter Pedant]

my mothers friend found £250 in a handbag in the thirties and took it to the police station
( they were open then )
and the owner was contracted swept in and took the handbag and money and commented

your reward will be in heaven !

[rsvp]

That's what I should have done sunny-dave - just didn't think at the time but at the end of the day I can only hope the rightful owners got their property back. It was too big an amount for no one to miss it and the unbanked cheques were of no use to anyone other than who they were made out to.

[anotheoldgit]

I once found a purse on a bench in the town where I lived, I looked in the purse and saw that there was a large sum of money in notes and also the address of the owner.

I went to this address which was on the other side of town in my car, and handed the purse and contents to a very happy pensioner, who strangely enough had not at that time discovered that her purse was even missing.

[cassa333]

Theft by finding.

My sister used to be a policewoman many years ago and she said then that there was no 'finder keepers' in law.

But I am sure most of us would have done the same.

I wonder found a £20 note in the pocket of a charity store coat Imhad bought and went back and put it in their collecting tub.

[-Talbot-]

Pathetic.


Walking home from the pub taking my usual route through the woods, I came across a car that was obviously stolen (yeah I used my vivid imagination and jumped to a conclusion) I reported it to the police.

''Are you sure it is stolen sir''

'Well it is an odd place to park your car if it isn't' I replied.

They didn't bother coming out to check. In the morning I went to see if it was still there ... it was burn't to a crisp.


Perhaps they were too busy grilling Mrs Brady old lady because she found a crinkly old tenner down the shops to bother with real crime.

[Buenchico]

If you find money in the street (instead of in a shop with loads of CCTV cameras, which could have seen who dropped it), with no indication as the where it could have come from, you're probably within the law if you keep it:
"A person’s appropriation of property belonging to another is not to be regarded as dishonest . . . if he appropriates the property in the belief that the person to whom the property belongs cannot be discovered by taking reasonable steps"
[Theft Act 1968, Section 2]

(Note that as long as you have a genuine belief that it would be impossible to trace the owner you're in the clear. It doesn't matter if it can later be shown that the owner could actually be found; it's your belief that counts).

What would I do? Here are some actual examples of what I've done in the past:

(a) I spotted a £20 note on the floor of my local convenience shop in Sheffield back in the 1980s and handed it to the shopkeeper. He later told me that one of his regular customers, a lady well into here eighties and bent nearly double with back problems, had turned up very distressed because she'd lost £20 from her pension and she was delighted when he returned her money to her ;

(b) I spotted another £20 note in the doorway of a sub post office in Lowestoft, took it inside and handed it to one of their staff, who took my contact details. Three months later, as the money had been unclaimed, they posted it to me.

(c) I found £30 sticking out of one of the self-service tills in Asda (obviously forgotten by someone who had used the cash-back facility). I noted the number of the till and handed the money in at the customer service desk. (BTW: I've left money sticking out of a self-service till twice myself in Asda. On both occasions I got it back from customer services).

(d) My colleagues and I quite often found money lying on the ground at the railway station where I worked. It was always recorded in our lost property book and then handed in at the booking office. A guy turned up once to enquire about the US$200 dollars he'd mislaid the day before and was amazed when we returned his money to him.

[Dinapal]

Ever thought of Gold prospecting?

[Dinapal]

Twas known as "stealing by finding under the old Sec 1 Larceny act 1916 but like Sec 1 Theft Act 1968 there was a clause "if there was no reasonable chance of ascertaining the ownership"