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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

What is a reasonable amount of money to hand in at a police station?

79 replies

Frogme · 28/12/2014 23:14

£5, £10, £20, £50, over £100?

I don't think I'd bother going to a police station for £20 or less in just cash as I don't think most people would bother to check for that small amount. It gets a bit greyer between this and £50, purely because it would be a faff for me to take it there, but I think maybe the guilt would make me do it. Easy decision over £50.

I suspect mumsnetters will say anything should be handed in, but is anyone prepared to say differently?

OP posts:
sanfairyanne · 29/12/2014 11:17

dh often loses his wallet Angry but it usually makes its way back to us (minus cash). we are always pleased tho as it has photos etc in

RubberDuck · 29/12/2014 11:18

We handed in £10 a couple of years back as it was in the first few weeks of school term on the main route to secondary school. It was likely to have been a kid's dinner money for the week :(

It wasn't claimed and was given back to me a few months later. At least felt that I'd done all I could to reunite it with its owner before spending it.

WilburIsSomePig · 29/12/2014 11:21

I handed a tenner in last week. Not mine to keep.

Rinoachicken · 29/12/2014 12:37

I would hand in anything over £50 or anything in an envelope, bag etc, mainly in case it was 'dirty'

Hatespiders · 29/12/2014 21:47

A woman I knew in our last village was jubilant because she'd found a roll of notes, abut £250, on the ground in a car park. She'd kept it. I said I thought she should take it to a Police Station, but she scoffed. She said the Police would just keep it for themselves, and the idiot who lost it ought to have taken more care with their money!! I seem to remember that you can be charged with 'stealing by finding' but not sure. I found her attitude quite disgusting and dishonest.

I'd always hand anything in if it was notes. An odd coin goes in a charity box. You can't keep it, it doesn't belong to you. And some poor soul may be desperate for their lost money.

Bulbasaur · 29/12/2014 23:13

Handing in loose money to people... Grin

You know they'll just pocket it.

I'll hand in wallets with cash untouched because the rightful owner is easy to find, but loose bills floating around are finders keepers. We had money handed to us at a job, they just split it up in the tip jar at the end of the day and we all pocketed it. No one ever came asking for it.

Unless it was a bag of cash, I wouldn't turn it in.

Hakluyt · 29/12/2014 23:42

"You know they'll just pocket it"

Certainly not my experience. It might come as a surprise to you, but most people have quite high standards of behaviour..............

TinselHalo · 30/12/2014 00:17

I agree with Hak. In my experience the vast majority of people are decent and honest.

For some reason I seem to find a lot of lost mobiles. In the last year I've found at least five and a similar number the year before too! I always take them home, pop them on to charge and wait for them to ring. Usually it's the owner phoning from an alternate number, sometimes a friend or relative. I explain who I am and hoe coke I have the phone and I arrange to meet the owner and give it back.

It's nice to be nice :)

NeedsAsockamnesty · 30/12/2014 00:19

It's theft by finding spiders

Bulbasaur · 30/12/2014 00:36

Certainly not my experience. It might come as a surprise to you, but most people have quite high standards of behaviour...

Actually, I think you're the one that would be surprised. Most people don't hang onto loose bills like that. If for nothing else, people don't go and claim them. In our case, our register got reset with a base value each morning, so any extra money in the till outside store profit was divied up as tips. There wasn't anything else we were allowed to do with the money.

So even if it's not malicious, the money still gets pocketed. You're just giving away free money to make yourself feel good. Logically, it's pointless to turn in loose money, it can't be traced to the rightful owner.

Theft by finding applies primarily to objects that can be traced to an owner. It might technically apply in this case, but good luck proving that the person found your money.

In any case, first hand experience, money gets pocketed at most stores and police stations unless it's dirty.

Hakluyt · 30/12/2014 00:43

Well, my children have been handing in sums of money to the police station on a regular basis for the past 18 years, and have always, in due course, got a letter telling them to come and collect it. Except the twice whn they got letter from the person who lost it thanking them.

In any case, which lesson would you rather your children learned? "Oh, dear, some poor person's lost their money, let's try and gt it back to them" or "Yay! Finder's keepers!" Hmm

Snapespotions · 30/12/2014 00:48

Less than a fiver - I'd keep it.
Between £5 and £20 - I'd give it to charity
£20 or more - I'd hand it in to the police (never a shop)

Snapespotions · 30/12/2014 00:54

I remember getting an extra £10 out of the ATM once when I was a kid - it was one of the first times I'd ever used one, and it gave me £20 instead of the £10 printed on the receipt.

I thought it was a lucky windfall but my parents made me take it into the bank and tell them what had happened so that they could check their machine. I was absolutely gutted at the time, and a bit disappointed that the bank didn't even acknowledge my honesty! However, looking back, I can see that it was the right thing to do. It wasn't my £10 to keep.

Bulbasaur · 30/12/2014 01:09

In any case, which lesson would you rather your children learned? "Oh, dear, some poor person's lost their money, let's try and gt it back to them" or "Yay! Finder's keepers!"

I will be teaching them to use discretion. Small amount of money, lucky them. Large amount turn it in so it doesn't bite them in the ass. Wallet, definitely turn it in since that has cards and important papers in it. Surely that's not so hard, is it? I think it's a bit facetious to teach them to turn in a twenty to the police, when you know no one is going to turn up and claim it for the sake of "feeling good".

CattyCatCat · 30/12/2014 01:19

I've only ever found a bank note twice in my life. Both within a week or so of each other and within a two min walk of each other. Both £5. Very bizarre. I kept it both times (as notes were just laid in pavement in empty street). Both times I bought chips from the chippy to take home for my family.

umbongoumbongo · 30/12/2014 01:33

I found a handbag once with some cash (about £20?) a few cards and some costume jewellery. Handed it in to the police and left my details and then got a phone call from them asking more questions about where I'd found it as the woman it belonged to had been reported as missing. Anyway she did turn up alive and well (I rang to check the following day as police never got back to me) and never had so much as a thank you when I'd driven miles out of my way to hand it in.

WaywardOn3 · 30/12/2014 09:24

I've handed someone's debit card into their bank and returned a massive wad of cash to the person who's purse I saw it fall out of.

Anyone could walk into a police station or shop and ask if x amount has been handed in as you've lost it couldn't they?

Hatespiders · 30/12/2014 11:06

I had a terrible panic some years ago as I'd left my entire handbag hanging on the hook of a supermarket trolley at Roys of Wroxham. My car keys were in my coat pocket so like a fool I just drove off. When I got home I nearly collapsed with horror. I drove back all the way to Wroxham in a right state. The Customer Services lady (I've been shopping there for 30 years) saw me hurrying towards her and started to laugh. "What, did yew hev a senior moooment Mrs Spiders?" A kind man had handed the whole bag in and she was waving it at me. He didn't even leave his name, but my goodness I bless him to this day. My bank cards, about £50 in cash and my driving licence were all in there.

DrCarolineTodd · 30/12/2014 21:27

DH has handed £20 in to police before now.

WellThatsLife · 30/12/2014 22:04

My stepmum and I once found £140 in a pub car park, folded up as if they had fallen out of a wallet. Handed it in a police station, nobody claimed it so split it between us.

vienna1981 · 31/12/2014 06:16

£10.00 minimum. I found a tenner on the High Street a few years ago. It was a Thursday - pension day - so I took it to the police station (a five mile drive ), knowing I wouldn't want to lose £10.00. The constable explained that by the letter of the law the money would go to the Treasury if it wasn't claimed. However he wasn't prepared to let the Chancellor get his hands on it so he told me to go back in month. I did so and came away a little bit richer and feeling virtuous and vindicated.

I admit I would have pocketed a fiver.

Thenapoleonofcrime · 31/12/2014 08:41

I don't think it's about 'being honest', it's pretty much a waste of police resources to go around documenting non-identifiable 10 and 20 pound notes and then dealing with you/contacting you to collect them later. Police resources have been slashed by 20% and more cuts are on the way, lots of towns now don't have an operating public police stations any more. If I were to find 20 pounds in my home town, I'd have to drive 20 miles to the next one- and take up 30 min of a police officer's time- sorry not worth it for anyone.

For larger sums which may represent someone's whole pension and they can easily document they have lost (wallet, roll of notes, specific sum) it is worth it, but these small amounts, don't think it's justifiable really (I would hand in at nearest shop, look about for person- and if nothing obvious, would keep the money).

This is hypothetical though, so far in my forty odd years I've only found one pound (the other day, I kept it!)

Thenapoleonofcrime · 31/12/2014 08:45

Bulbasaur I agree with you, this is about sensible use of police resources and whilst it may make everyone feel better to hand in a tenner, it's not actually a good use of resources (police time spent costs more than the actual sum returned and very unlikely to be reunited with owner).

OhYouBadBadKitten · 31/12/2014 08:54

We don't actually have a police station in our decent sized town anymore. So when I found an low value item I phoned the police and said I had it. They wanted me to go over to another town that I never go to to drop it off. I told them I wasn't going to do that but I would give them a description and hold on to it here. They were actually fine with that.
So I think if someone lost money in our town they wouldn't go to the police to get it back, for a start they would have to guess which other random towns police station it had been handed in to. I'd either hand it in to the nearest shop or put on the local fb groups that I'd found it.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 31/12/2014 08:56

Hadn't actually read the last few posts Blush - I see it's an issue for others too.