If you found a wallet with £300 in it what would you do?

Question

There is no name or cards in it to return it to the owner the easy way. Just a photograph of 2 small children.
Would you keep it?
Spend it?
Hand it to the Police?

Answer 1

best to give it to the police as if its not claimed after 3 months u can legally keep it. my daughter found £10 on floor ina shop and handed it to the shop. whilst we applauded her honesty we said she would have been better to hand to police cos unlikely someones going to come and ask for it back and the shop will keep it. where as if she handed to police at least if noone claimed it should be be rewarded for her honesty and resisting the temptation to put it in her purse.

Answer 2

I would not hand money to police. They would do nothing with it to try to find the owner. If I did I would give wallet only with my details so owner could contact me !. I would contact local paper to advertise children picture to get owner this way. If I have tried everything I would keep money for a good length of time then having tried my best use the money well ( maybe charity or very good cause) but be ready to return to owner. IIf I just spend the money without seriously trying I know I will be very unlucky.

Answer 3

Here in India, under such circumstances people seldom report such things to police to avoid chain of silly and meaningless questions from those heartless personnel. Instead we publish a small note like "classified" in local newspaper indicating "something found and claimant should approach/phone the following person with mark and/or idenitification" etc. In your case the wallet holds a photograph of two kids....may be that would be the key to spot the lawful owner of the money. He or she is supposed to pay the charges of that advertisement plus a thankful note with a tea. I think this is a smooth and acceptable practice.

In short...don't think to keep the money at least for those two lovely kids.

Answer 4

I did find a wallet in the middle of the street, with loose twenties fluttering near it. I picked it all up, tracked the person down (in this case, there was a license but with the wrong address) and returned it. The woman had 3 small children and worked 2 jobs. She was very grateful. If there had been no ID, I would have turned it in to the police.

Answer 5

I would hand it into the Police, I did find a wallet last year and it had numerous cards in it plus £160 in cash. I suspected who might have dropped it and walked almost a mile and a half round the sea wall to catch up with the people. I made sure it was them that had lost it by getting them to identify the contents without seeing the wallet. They said thank you but that was it.I have found loads of things and always managed to return them to their owners.

Answer 6

Run a found ad in the paper. Say you found a wallet at such and such location, call to identify contents. Wait for someone to call and be able to identify the amount of money and the photographs and give it back to them. If no one claims the wallet after an appropriate amount of time, say 2-4 weeks, then donate the money to charity. Don't keep the money. It is wrong to profit from someone else's misfortune.

Answer 7

I would turn it in to the police, then check back in 30 days, if I hadn't heard anything.

I did something similar about 4-5 months ago. I found a bank envelope, in the parking lot of the bank, with almost $245.00 in it.

There was nothing in the envelope to identify it at all. I turned it in and a couple days later I found out that the owner was able to retrieve it.

The owner told the bank to relay a big thank you to me for returning it. She was thrilled to get her money back, as she didn't think anyone would turn in such a good sum of money.

Answer 8

This actually happened to me. I found a purse with £200 and like yours, there were photos and also religious medals. Whilst they meant nothing to me I knew they were important to the owner. I took it to the police and they asked if I wanted a reward. I said no. However, the purse was collected and I didn't even get a thank you from the owner! Made me wonder what I would do the next time!

Answer 9

I'd like to think i would hand it in to police station who would then ask for the owner to come forward. i think after a certain amount of time if no one claims it then the finder has the right to keep it anyway.
bad karma to not at least attempt to give it back.
Although i found thirty quid lying loose on the street the other day, I kept that. Finders keepers applies in those circumstances.

Answer 10

To be honest I'm very tempted to say to keep it. If you have £300 in your wallet you obviously must have plenty of money. I don't think my wallet has ever seen more than £40 and in very few occasions. Then again, I'll probably end taking it to the police, the guilt alone will make me.