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I'm really surprised by people (local news story)
A man is on his way to buy a car. He has $2300 in cash for a down payment in his pocket. He stops at a local convenience store to buy pretzels and water, and the $2300 falls out of his pocket. He doesn't notice. (This is all on the store's security cameras.)
The woman in line behind him sees it fall out of his pocket. She picks it up. She looks around, places the items she was going to buy on the counter and walks very quickly (almost runs) out of the store.
The man realizes the cash is missing and goes back to the convenience store and insists they review their security footage. They see what happened and release the video to local news media. As a result, the woman is identified and arrested, charged with theft and receiving stolen property.
I broke the Cardinal Rule of the Interwebz and read the comments on the story on Facebook. I'm really surprised at the number of people who feel that she shouldn't have been arrested -- the whole "finders keepers" thing. There are many who comment, "It fell out of his pocket -- how is that theft?" And a lot are blaming the man, saying he shouldn't have been carrying that amount in cash (carrying it loose in his pocket, yeah, kind of dumb, but "he was asking for it"?).
Do you think she should be charged?
Re: I'm really surprised by people (local news story)
I suppose if this was considered theft under the law, then it's theft no matter what I think.
On the other hand, I have mixed feelings about this. If she had found that money in a dark alley with no one around, then yeah, I'd say "finder's keepers." But this situation feels different to me even though under the law, it probably doesn't (and probably shouldn't). I guess her knowing for sure that the man didn't intend to lose possession of that money is enough for me to say that, yes, it's theft. But yikes, I still go back and forth with this.
Although, even if it was legal for her to take the money, I'd judge the hell out of her for not doing the right thing when she had the opportunity to do the right thing.
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DIMO, if find something and you know who it belongs to and you still keep it then you're in the wrong. period.
of course, now i have to change the "if the spare change is on the floor of daddy's office, it's yours" rule i established with my daughter this morning.
Yes she should be charged with theft. If you saw someone leave thier car running while running in to pay for gas, you don't say, oh, well he left it running, it must be mine now, I'll just drive away before he notices.
She knew that money was his and she could an should have just given it back to him. Stealing.
So wait, in my previous post when I mentioned that if she found the money in some dark alley with no one around, she'd have to make an attempt to find the owner? The only way I could think of doing that is calling the police but would they even give me the time of day if I said that I found the money and there was absolutely no one around? How would that help them? I feel like I'd be wasting their time by doing that.
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DH has experience with this. You turn it in to the police, they hold it for a certain amount of time, and if nobody comes in asking about it then it is yours. At least that is how it is here. He found $200 when he was a kid (with nobody around) and turned it in. Nobody claimed it so he got to keep it.
That makes sense. I would assume the police don't publicized that they found this money and just wait until someone calls to see if anyone turned money in, correct? Or else I could see a bunch of people claiming the money like it's a lost lotto ticket lol.
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DThis seems like such a no-brainer to me that I can't believe there's any debate at all. She was in line behind him and saw it fall out of his pocket. She had an obligation to return it! End of story.
It's theft because she knew who the owner was, but took possession anyway. I really like the analogy above that references someone leaving a car running while the owner runs into a store. Sure, he should have been more careful, but his car is still "stolen" and not "found."
If she found the money on the floor of the store ten minutes after he left, I personally think she still had an obligation to turn it into the police to find the rightful owner. But it could be argued that maybe that isn't theft. But the scenario presented is pretty cut-and-dried to me.
I'm guessing that she knew she was doing something wrong by the fact that she ran out of the store. People don't generally, uh, FLEE THE SCENE when they are doing perfectly normal things that are in accordance with good sense and the law.
Meanwhile, the big local new story today for me is about a guy who two cops found laying naked in the street in a quiet residential area. They woke him up and he started freaking out about how he was forced to fight somebody and, unrelated, somebody was murdered in his house. The police go to the house and don't find a body or any signs of a fight...but the do find a meth lab.
absolutely. the guy is standing RIGHT THERE and you don't say "hey, man, your money fell out of your pocket"
When those things happen in my life, I usually don't even pick it up, I just tell the person they dropped something.
I am the 99%.
I definitely see a difference between finding money in a field or an alley vs. it falling out from the owner right there in front of you.
Having said that, if I was on a popular walking trail or sports field and found a LOT of money ($50 of more) I'd be tempted to hold on to it just in case someone brought it up later. I guess I feel like a drug seller isn't going to post a message on a listserv saying they lost $100 in a soccer field, but there a plenty of legit reasons people would have that much cash on them and I would feel like I was taking from them if they really need/want/miss it.
Yes, she should be charged. The security camera makes it easy to identify her AND to identify the man who was the rightful owner.
I was actually kind of surprised when my husband and I had a similar conversation with a friend a few weeks ago. She mentioned something about keeping a large amount of money found on the street, or how it would be dumb to turn it into the police because they couldn't find it. Husband and I were both like, "uh..." and she said, "But they wouldn't be able to find who it belonged to!" Not true. If you come to the police saying you lost exactly $3454 on the corner of x and y, then yeah, it's probably yours. Security cameras are everywhere. You could have other physical evidence it was yours (a bank receipt). Plus, I think after a certain period of time, you can take the unclaimed property or split it with the cops or something.
Anyway, she justified it by saying that anyone who would turn in the money "didn't know what it was like to be poor." Actually, that's one major reason I DON'T steal anyone else's shiit. I walked up to an ATM once and there was several hundred dollars sticking out of it. I assumed it was probably someone's rent money. I didn't know what to do, because the bank was closed, so I couldn't take it in and have them track down the owner, and no one was around the ATM. Eventually it got sucked back into the machine, but knowing how devestated *I* would be to lose that money? That's why you return it. It's called empathy.
40/112
40/112
Anything you can achieve through hard work, you could also just buy.
You know... if it's anywhere but a dark alley, I think I'd try to find the owner of that much cash.
Anecdote warning: DH, the kids and I were in a mountain town on a weekend vacation, went to an ATM and discovered $60 of cash had been left in the money tray - like someone had withdrawn the money but forgot to pick it up. We looked at each other for a moment, and DH said, "Damn it all - I'll take it inside to the teller, maybe they can find a way to contact the rightful owner."
I guess I don't think she should be charged, as her intent wasn't to pick his pocket, but not sure what kind of consequence she should have that would correct that behavior.
If YOU lost the money, would you want her charged?
She KNEW the money came out of the guy's pocket -- or at minimum, knew someone dropped it. It was NOT her money to keep. Yes, she should be charged.
If she turned the money in and no one claimed it --after a period of time, it would become hers.
While reading the story, I thought that was going to be what happened. And it would be like a lovely human interest story to restore our faith in humanity. Wrong!
40/112
Watching the video, she actually left the store BEFORE the guy who dropped the cash. She saw it fall, reached down and picked it up, looked around, dropped the stuff she was waiting to purchase and ran.
The truly poetic thing would have been if this woman took the money she saw fall out of this man's pocket and then as she was rushing to make her getaway she was hit by a bus. Just saying.
If she committed a crime, which it looks like she did, then she should have been arrested. Her behavior was both douchey AND illegal, so I have not problem with her going to jail for it.
I would have certainly been sympathetic if she was indeed hit by a bus, though.