Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

Original poster

Am I a big fat thief?

22 replies

Whocansay · 17/07/2013 16:15

More of a 'what would you do', but posted here for more traffic.

I found £10 on the floor of a car park. No-one walking around. Thought "oooh! I'll have that" and I picked it up. Then I noticed there were a couple of people in cars nearby with doors / windows open. Am now thinking I should have asked if it belonged to them. I have a knot in my stomach and wish I'd never seen it. Too late to go back and ask. Am now waiting for the police to come and get me...

If I phone 101 will they just laugh at me? I feel like Ronnie Biggs

OP posts:

sonnybeaudelaire · 17/07/2013 16:16

If it's really bothering you, put it in a charity box and have done with it!

TylerHopkins · 17/07/2013 16:16

Chances are one of those people would have lied and said it was their's.

Donate it to charity if it will make you feel better.

YouTheCat · 17/07/2013 16:16

Keep it.

The chances are the owner of the tenner would be long gone anyway.

missnevermind · 17/07/2013 16:18

These make me laugh. A thousand people will be along to tell you you were wrong and you must now serve penance and give it to charity.

While the rest of us normal people will be thinking well done nice bonus. Wish I had more of that sort of luck.

Optimist1 · 17/07/2013 16:18

Nasty, cynical woman that I am I fear that anyone you asked if they'd dropped a tenner would say yes!!

You could put it in a charity box if you really don't want to benefit from the find.

OKnotOK · 17/07/2013 16:19

They probably would have said it was theirs even if it wasnt.

Finders keepers...enjoy it (or donate it) your choice.

Pawprint · 17/07/2013 16:20

Don't worry - whoever dropped it would have been long gone.

I found two £10 notes outside a school recently. I did hand them in because it was quite likely someone connected to the school might have lost them and would have asked the school if they had been handed in.

However, some time back I found £10 in the street and kept it.

MonstrousPippin · 17/07/2013 16:22

If I'd dropped a tenner and you'd picked it up and kept it, I probably wouldn't be upset because I would have done the same thing!

Spend it on an icecream.

therewearethen · 17/07/2013 16:24

I'm of the finders keepers mind set most of the time, however I get updates on Facebook yes I know from my local policing team and there is something called 'theft by finding' I don't think it would apply in this situation tbh but there have been many red faces and cautions thanks to this Facebook page when people have requested cashback from the self serve tills and forgotten to collect it and the user behind has picked it up and kept it.

I'd never heard of 'theft by finding' before but would now think twice about picking any money up

Original poster

Whocansay · 17/07/2013 16:25

Thanks guys. I feel a bit ridiculous and wish I'd never even seen it!

OP posts:

MaxPepsi · 17/07/2013 16:26

Keep it.

Spend it.

ImTooHecsyForYourParty · 17/07/2013 16:26

If there was any way at all of identifying the owner, or it was a large sum of money or it was dropped in a place where it would be reasonable to assume someone would or could come back and ask if it had been handed in, then it would be wrong to keep it. But a loose tenner in a car park and you didn't see it fall and nobody appears to be looking for it? Keep it.
And I say that as the woman who chased an elderly man through a car park to give him backnthe quid he'd left in the ticket machine!

squoosh · 17/07/2013 16:27

I remember reading about a couple who found what turned out to be a winning lottery ticket on the supermarket floor. They were forced to hand it back. Fair enough

This is just a tenner, pretend a lovely seagull dropped it there just for you!

TylerHopkins · 17/07/2013 16:27

I want to know where pawprint lives

JRmumma · 17/07/2013 16:27

In a car park? It could have been anyone's. Keep it! Its very unlikely that it would ever make it back to the original owner, however hard you tried.

I know how you feel though, i always imagine that the person who dropped the money has a dire need for it and may starve or similar because they lost it. Sounds stupid to get worked up over a tenner but my imagination runs wild!

gamerchick · 17/07/2013 16:32

Loose money is fair game. There is around 15 quid rolled up in receipts in a lot of supermarket bins for eg.

Lottery tickets however have to be handed in but it states that on the back.

Keep it and treat yourself.

Original poster

Whocansay · 17/07/2013 16:47

JRmumma I do feel like that. It was the car park of a doctor's surgery, so I may hand it in there. Don't think I can live with the guilt!

OP posts:

Original poster

Whocansay · 17/07/2013 16:48

I didn't know that about Lottery tickets! It's a good idea though - can you imagine if you lost one and your numbers came up?

OP posts:

squoosh · 17/07/2013 16:52

Whocansay I know you say you feel like Ronnie Biggs but I don't think he'd ever have had a crisis of conscience over ten pounds!

Kiss your kids goodbye and hot foot it to the Costa before anyone finds out.

MissStrawberry · 17/07/2013 16:56

Next time you could ask if they had dropped any money. If genuinely theirs they will know how much it is...

Enjoy it!

Worriedmind · 17/07/2013 17:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LondonMan · 17/07/2013 17:02

An economist is walking along the street with a friend, when they spot a banknote on the ground. The economist steps past, and the friend asks "Aren't you going to pick that up?". Answer: "Of course not, if it were real someone else would have picked it up already."

Flip