Money still sitting in Christmas card

[mamalovebird]

Wondering what to do on this one....

Back story - we moved into our house last November. Previous tenant had two children. come December and the Christmas cards start dropping. I inadvertently opened a card shaped envelope to find two small cards from Uncle Ern (judging by the writing a very elderly gent) with £10 in each of them for the previous tenant's children.
Put them to one side along with his other mail thinking he may come and pick up his post at some point. No show. Contacted the estate agency for a forwarding address but they don't have one.
Fast forward 6 months and I've revisited the pile of old post whilst doing a clearout and those cards with the money are still there.

Just do not know what to do with it? What would you do?

I'd give it to charity, it doesn't seem like you'll get a forwarding address.

Or post an advertisement in the local news? Chances are the family have moved locally?

Thing is, Uncle Ern may well post more money this Christmas....

Donate it to charity? I think it is great you have held on to it so long and nt used it yourself. Realistically though, how long do you hold on to it for? I think 6 months, as they have no forwarding address , and you have done what you can to try and find them, is a reasonable time scale. Donate it and let Karma flow your way. :)

Charity was my first thought, then I thought about contacting the local rag but wondered if it was a bit OTT for £20, but then it's not like I'd have to do that much I suppose. I just think about how excited those kids would have been to have ten whole pounds in there hands!

GoggleEyed - I am a firm believer in Karma which is why I could never have touched the money myself.

Velvet - yes I thought about that too - poor Uncle Ern! Sending his pension out thinking those kids will be giddy when they get it.

Are there no neighbours who might know where the previous tenant has gone?
Strange he didn't leave a forwarding address or have mail redirected.

You could ask the police who will give you the money back if it's not claimed after a few months - then you can legally do what you like with it.

Poor Uncle Ern [hsad]

Funnily both our neighbours are newer than us so no one really knows much about him, I'm not even sure how long he was here before us.

We do still receive mail for him!!

Mumsnet Campaign to find Uncle Ern.

Ask the neighbours, thats a good idea - even if they do not keep in touch they may have a fair idea where they moved to?

ah x post

I like it. I half toyed with opening the other post to see if I could contact anyone to find out but I'm sure I've heard that you can't open other people's post - even though I did by mistake which cause me to find the cards in the first place.

Re the opening mail for others being illegal - I know this, but I open post that's not for me. I want to see why other people are using my address! It's happened a few times and each time I've contacted the companies responsible who have promised to take those people off their mailing lists.

Luckily, they've been previous owners from years ago and the mail has been junk, but you can't be too careful sometimes.