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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not hand in £5 to the local police station?

199 replies

maresedotes · 19/10/2011 20:15

On the way home from school DD1 (9) found £5 outside the local pub. I told her to keep it. DH thinks she should hand it in to the local police station.

I will honestly tot up the answers and do whatever the majority tell me to do!

BTW, if it was a wallet or purse I would hand it in.

OP posts:
SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 20/10/2011 11:42

I have no problem with judging someone who kept £50 of someone else's money, Angel. None at all.

ShroudOfHamsters · 20/10/2011 11:50

As others have said that the police will only take a minute to log it and then she'll get in back in 28 days - I say hand it in!!

No-one will have reported it, you know that, we all know that - but handing it in is a good 'responsible citizen' thing to do - let her go through that process and have praise for doing the right thing. Then, in 28 days she will in all likelihood have the excitement of being contacted to claim her £5, and can enoy a very well-deserved treat.

Angel786 · 20/10/2011 11:51

How wonderful life must look from your ivory tower, sdtg.

thecatatemygymsuit · 20/10/2011 11:54

So anyone who would hand a fiver in, what would you do if you found a £1/£2 coin? I mean, where do you draw the line, seriously?
I'm not mean or a thief - I have handed back money when I saw someone drop it in the street, but come on. A fiver to the police station? I simply don't believe a word of it!

My very prim and proper (and church-going) grandmother taught me to look for money in the street when I was little. It's a valuable and under-rated skill, the finders keepers thing.

Bramshott · 20/10/2011 11:55

I think on this occasion I would tell her to keep it. I did however make DD1 (8) hand in £5 she found on the floor near the shop at a museum, on the basis that it might have been someone's pocket money, and if not, the museum would keep it as a donation.

Quenelle · 20/10/2011 11:56

I don't think anyone would report a lost fiver to a police station. I would have told her to keep it.

It would be unfair, now that you've said she can keep it, to take it from her again.

RedOnion · 20/10/2011 11:56

Keep it of course. It's a fiver. The police really do have better things to do than log a missing fiver. If it was in a purse or wallet with ID then hand it in, a loose note in the street, of course you keep it!

onefatcat · 20/10/2011 12:16

Sdtg- God help your dc when they loose something and someone else keeps it- if you have taught them to be as virtuous as you claim they are going to get a real shock when they find out not everyone else is!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 20/10/2011 12:23

So someone keeps £50 of someone else's money, and I am the bad parent?

And my dc have already had to learn the hard lesson that there are some nasty people in the world who will keep things they've found, knowing that someone else has lost them - when he was only about 6, ds3 took his watch off to wash his hands when he went to the loo on the train, and forgot to put it back on again. When we went back, it was gone. I hope that makes you happy, onefatcat. Hmm

onefatcat · 20/10/2011 12:27

I'm not talking about the £50, I'm talking in regards to the £5.
Keeping money from a cash point is a different matter.

Did you not go to the police station?? Someone might have handed it in!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 20/10/2011 12:35

It was on a train, and we asked the guard, but no-one had handed it in.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 20/10/2011 12:48

Re: handing in the £5 to the station - I would do that because not to do so would blur the boundaries of right and wrong for me, and I'd rather be overly-conscientious, and I'm going to tell you why, even though I am pretty damn sure that someone is going to crow over this, and use it as a stick to beat me with.

Ds3, now 14, has stolen money from my purse on more than one occasion, and we have cracked down hard on him for it. He knows that if he does it again, I will be getting the police to have a word with him about it. The sums stolen have been around the £10 mark, but that doesn't make it any less wrong or shocking. If ds3 had seen me keep money he and I both knew wasn't mine, I think it would have been much harder for me to discipline him for this behaviour. That fiver would have come from someone else's purse or wallet - I know that - and so it would seem wrong to keep it.

Original poster
maresedotes · 20/10/2011 12:52

Right, the final tally is 40 = keep it, 12 = charity, 18 = police.

Now I'm torn. The arguments for both sides are so good "wasting police time, no-one will report a missing fiver" and "teach your dc a valuable lesson" She does know I'm trying to decide and seems to quite like the idea of going to the police station.

I'm an honest person but it didn't occur to me to hand it in to the police. But then someone mentioned arthritis and money dropping from a handbag.

Thank you all for your replies.

OP posts:
SayGhoulNowSayWitch · 20/10/2011 13:24

I would not keep it. I think the amount is irrelevant. It's the principle of the thing. People upthread have asked whether £1 or £2 should be reported. It's an arbitrary decision - but where do you draw the line at the other end of the spectrum? Do you report £10? £11? £12? Would you keep £19 but hand in £20?

It's irrelevant who it may or may not belong to. Just because it was found outside a pub doesn't mean it belongs to some pisshead who dropped a fiver.

I personally wouldn't be able to keep something that wasn't mine. I'm not virtuous or sitting in an ivory tower, I just know right from wrong. I would want my DD to learn the same.

EndoplasmicReticulum · 20/10/2011 13:27

Boys and I found a fiver in the street a while back. We took it into the nearby charity shop (Oxfam) and posted it into their collection box - on the basis that I didn't think it was worth the hassle of handing it in, but it wasn't right to keep it.

ShirleyKnot · 20/10/2011 13:30

Keep it. I quite often dream that I find great big wodges of money and I never go to the police station.

usualsuspect · 20/10/2011 13:35

If I lost a fiver in the street ,theres no way I would go to the police station to see if anyone had handed it in

ShirleyKnot · 20/10/2011 13:40

I can't imagine going into the police station and saying "excuse me Officer, please just put down that criminal and stop crime fight for I have found FIVE ENGLISH POUNDS upon the floor and wish for it to be reunited with it's owner"

The police round here would probably put me in a cell for being a bit mad. Grin

eurochick · 20/10/2011 13:42

Half to charity and half to buy a little treat for herself.

SayGhoulNowSayWitch · 20/10/2011 13:46

It's the principle and the context, people! OP's DD has found a fiver; if it were my DD I would want to teach her about honesty and right from wrong. Irrespective of the amount. There are ways to make an appointment with police officers so that you're not "wasting police time". Maybe it does seem a lot of effort for a fiver, but for a lifelong lessons for your child? Can you put a price on that?

usualsuspect · 20/10/2011 13:48

FFs I 'm sure OPs DD won't turn into a raging mugger because she found and kept a five

Lots of bloody high horses galloping over this thread

usualsuspect · 20/10/2011 13:48

Fiver*

Thzumbazombiewitch · 20/10/2011 13:48

Maresdotes - why not let her take it along to the police station as an exercise in what to do if she finds a bigger amount another time? If the police consider it to be a waste of time (which they probably won't) then they will tell you to keep it there and then (which they probably won't) but your DD will see how the police station works, where to go, who to speak to etc. Good learning exercise as well as an exercise in honesty and doing the right thing.

£5 to an adult is not much, and if it were you or another adult who had found it I'd probably say keep it too - but £5 is quite a lot of money to most children, so from a value point of view, it's worth handing in.

LadyEvilEyes · 20/10/2011 13:50

So as a few of us have asked upthread, supposing it was less than a £5 note.
Like a £1 or £2 coin?
That can be a lot of money for a little one.
It surely couldn't be kept either, could it.
A principle is a principle after all.

ShirleyKnot · 20/10/2011 13:55

The price I would put on that would be five pounds SayGhoul.