Stupid teen son found a lost gift card and spent some of the money, what will happen?

[yunogin]

Could honestly slap him but have refrained so far!

He's 16, usually a good boy but told me he had a lapse of judgement when he did this and only panicked afterwards.

He didn't nick the card as in grabbed it off someone, he says he found it on a bench in the town centre. I believe him as he isn't a teen delinquent. He mostly stays in his bedroom playing games, he'd only gone into town to pick up something for me from the shop.

He idiotically brought it home and purchased something for £7 on Sports Direct. He used a Sports Direct account with his name and birthday etc linked. Then immediately after he did it he became overwhelmed with panic and regret and ran downstairs with the gift card white as a sheet and told me everything. I laid into him at first about the moral and legal implications of this but he's terrified the cops will be round any second. We tried to cancel the order but you have ring Sports Direct to do that and explain why which seemed a bad idea.

He found the gift card in its sleeve with a receipt, but I've gone on to the issuers website (it's one of those high street ones that can be spent at many stores) and used the number on the card to check the balance and the owner last used it weeks ago. They clearly bought it out to spend more of it today and lost it. It's still got £70 on it so the poor sod will be looking high and low for it. I'm very ashamed of my son but I don't want an idiotic mistake landing him in court.

Apparently the company won't do anything about a stolen card unless you provide them with the number or receipt. So unless they remember the number there is nothing the owner can do which I feel awful about but as I said, I don't want DS ending up in court. I wish there was some way to return it to its rightful owner without possibly getting DS in a world of shit. Though they may have written down the number in which it will be really easy for them to trace DS as he hardly covered his tracks!

I've considered contacting the gift card issuers and explaining everything and apologizing on my sons behalf, and also saying I will get the Sports Direct order refunded to the card but will they contact the police? Shit shit shit!

Gift cards are treated as cash, if lost then the person who owned it would have to prove it was theirs, you can not report them lost or stolen

a weird amount though, did they really buy a shopping card for £77?

OP has said the card’s owner had already spent some of the money.

Her son made no effort to trace the owner before spending the card and placing an order so no reasonable attempts were made on his behalf after finding the card - he just immediately took it home, kept it and spent it. He could have taken various other steps instead - including leaving it alone.

Whilst OP has tried afterwards and hasn’t been able to trace the owner yet, this was after the fact.

Facebook

Nothing will happen at all. If it were a credit or debit card it would be a different story but a gift card can’t be traced.

I imagine mild autism is high functioning, smashstore,. Why are you being so aggressive?

See, it is not being aggressive. Makes my teeth grind when someone says mild autism.
I have an autistic son (or what some of you might call high functioning). There is nothing fucking mild about it when he goes in to a massive meltdown over something minor. Or when his anxiety levels are stratospheric. Just because he appears 'normal' to a lot of people doesn't mean he doesn't struggle and it doesn't mean that it isn't extremely difficult for the rest of the family.
In fact there is a lot more pressure on him because others expect 'normal' behaviour from him which he cannot comply with at times.
Mild fucking autism.
Sorry not sorry if that is aggressive.

Living on the edge 🤭

Oh, ok. Sorry.

Credit the card with £7. Hand into police station and say where it was found.

No one will check the cards history of usage and the person will know the balance is as they left it.

Job done!

We’ve all been young and daft.
I’m not even certain it’s illegal what he’s done.
Morally questionable but a good life’s lesson.
I’d be tempted to post on Facebook saying it’s been found if you’ve not already and offer the person the £7 if collected.
Otherwise I’d probably took it away to deal with at another time.

What Fatty said

It is theft by finding and what he did is dishonest and does constitute theft. However if he takes reasonable steps to find the owner I.e takes it to a police station, they will retain it and if no-one comes to collect it then he will likley be given it back after 28 days.
Dosent solve the issue of him spending the £7 but if someone does come to the police station and ask for it you could always give them the £7 it would then no longer be theft as the owner is not being perminently deprived.

@VanGoghsDog

Dropbox has a multitude of vulnerabilities - not least the ‘human factor’. It’s worth checking out

Unfortunately I no longer work in retail... but even if I did, a customer being able to provide a gift card number wouldn’t have resulted in us being able to do anything more than block the card... same as we could have done if they gave us the ‘when, where and how’ they bought it.

Good on him for feeling bad about it. You're a good mum to have a boy like that.

Did you know, though, that if you were in, say a supermarket, and found money on the floor, it belongs to the supermarket and must be handed back. I used it think "finders, keepers" but apparently that's not the case and you can be accused of theft.

Tell him it's finders keepers and enjoy the remaining £70

If she puts it on Facebook, how will she know which of the dozens of people responding actually owned the card?
Show your son what you are meant to do, and take it to the police...

I found a similar amount but in cash.

I posted on a couple FB local pages and the owner contacted me with the exact denomination of notes, rough time and probable location. It was definitely her money so I was able to give it back.

And nobody else tried to scam me on the threads either, mostly supportive "hope you find the owner!" comments.

After also being ominously warned of my master criminal status like on here I called the police. They couldn't have cared less and said they weren't interested as there was no crime and no way for them to investigate.

The officer said my social media efforts were more than enough and that was that.

moral of the story dont keep the receipt with the gift card all they can do is block it anyway

I once found someone's wallet with money and her name in it. Contacted her on FB and she didn't understand what I was talking about, thought I was a weirdo and blocked me! I just handed it in, much easier.

I think you’re being mean to your son tbh.

This doesn’t count as stealing as he probably thought he can’t trace the owner.

He did a mistake not a crime

😂 nothing will happen to him,
Calm down for gods sake!!

Post on Facebook say you found it explain to owner you stupidly used it thinking was your own give them the 7£ and there card say you seen it on the floor n picked it up didn’t realise till you seen your own also in your bag

I doubt it's even illegal. Immoral maybe but not illegal.
Of course it's illegal, it's called stealing by finding. A defence would be that you made reasonable efforts to trace the owner.

SirGawain

I was under the impression that under a certain amount of value it’s a case of ‘finders keepers’. Although I’m not sure if that’s still the case or how much that applies until?