So you find a wallet on the ground....

[CurtSibling]

I hand it in, of course.

But I would take 50% of the money as my 'honesty tax'.

.

 

[aaglo]

I'd take the wallet to the police, unspoiled.

 

[Bartleby]

I am the turn-it-in type. Happened twice to me, and the first taught me a lesson: the guy claimed that I had taken money out of the wallet. Maybe he was making it up, maybe someone else took the money, then dumped the wallet, but about 100 EUR was missing. And I almost got into trouble.

Sheesh. what a jerk!

 

[carlosMM]

Sheesh. what a jerk!

indeed. In the end, the police forced him to pay me a 'Finderlohn' (finder's reward), and told him to STFU.... but legally, I could have gotten into trouble

 

[Turner]

That sucks. Most people out this way I think would be happy just to have the wallet back. If the money was missing, it's almost expected.

 

[CurtSibling]

Sounds like he was trying to pull a fast one!

.

 

[SupremeC]

If you leave the wallet where it is, wouldn't someone else just pick it up?

Btw, whatever you do with the cash, please return the credit cards etc. Those are a ***** to replace

 

[Mirc]

Take all and see what I can use.

 

[aaglo]

Take all and see what I can use.

Including the bird flu the previous owner died from

 

[azzaman333]

What wallet on the ground? The only wallet here is my new one

 

[IglooDame]

I'm with Turner et al: if there's a license, credit card, or some other way to track down the owner, I'll do it and give the wallet back (with cash still inside). If there's no way to track down the owner, then it is found money. I'm very leery of turning things in to stores/bank/lost-and-founds, as my sense is that someone there would probably pocket the money anyway. You think there's any way to tell them "Here's a description of the wallet, and my phone number, if someone is looking for it then have them call me" and of course leave out an important detail so that someone at the store/bank/whatever can't call you and claim it themselves?

And I'm going to have to change my username, with all the Intelligent Design and IDentification bits around here, I never know when people believe in me or think I'm in a wallet...

 

[warmonger]

I've lost my wallet twice in my life. Both times it was returned to me completely intact.

the first time I was a poor Uni student - I bought the guy a lottery ticket in the hope that he got some reward.

The second time I was a rich coporate executive. The wallet was found by a 10 year old. She gave it to her parents, they gave it to me. I gave the girl twice the amount of cash that was in the wallet as a reward.

I like to think I would act as these two kind people did.

 

[Mirc]

Including the bird flu the previous owner died from

I can't take bird flu from another human. If however the wallet belonged to a sparrow I should be careful.

 

[carlosMM]

I can't take bird flu from another human

yet......

 

[Mirc]

Don't scare me. My city is infected. My sector from the city I live is infected.

 

[aaglo]

I can't take bird flu from another human. If however the wallet belonged to a sparrow I should be careful.

I thought there already were such cases found. Well, maybe they were hoaxes

Oh, yes - beware the infamous pirate called Jack Sparrow

 

[Norseman2]

If it had any sort of ID in it so that I could find out who it belongs to, then I would return it. If it didn't, and didn't have a lot of money it, then I would keep it. If it had a lot of money (i.e. worth it to check for DNA or fingerprints and find the owner), then I would let the police deal with it.

 

[Keshik]

Return it to the owner/turn it in. I know how I would feel if I lost my wallet. Besides, morally, it is the right thing to do.

 

[.Shane.]

I've turned in, IIRC, 3 wallets in my life. In each case, ID was there. My wife has also had 2 wallets and 1 set of keys returned to her.

Even if there was no ID, I'd turn it in. I'm pretty sure in most places, if its never claimed you would actually get it after a period of time.

 

[Sidhe]

I once lost my wallet and it was handed in to me with all but the money, I thought at the time that the person who had stole the money(5pounds and 68 pence) yeah I never carry quantities of cash any real distance, so I had virtually nothing. The police officer who handed it to me suggest I send a thankyou but I didn't, I figured whoever handed it in had stolen the money, on reflection I should of sent a thankyou anyway, but at the time I wasn't thinking properly. I regret that, I made an assumption about the person who handed it in without any facts to support my hypothesis.

Thinking about it I'd hand it in because of my personal experience and my own personal morality, and this thinking is not as uncommon as you would believe, a friend of mine lost his wallet with 160 pounds in it, and said he would go to the police hoping someone had handed it in, I said don't bother there were no credit cards in it and no ID, it's a 5 quid wallet, someone will have taken the wallet and spent it before you even hit the police station, I was wrong he got the money back(after he named the notes 5 twenties and six tens) and was personally relieved as hell, that meant the difference between a holiday for five or no holiday, at the time we were amazed by the decency of the person involved, sometimes people do the right thing, who da funk?

If anyone missed the important point here, if you hand it in and a person claims it even without ID if you can name the moneys denomination you get it back, even better if no one claims it as is most likely in this case, you get to keep the money and you have a clear conscience, at least in this country and the US it seems.