Minor ethical dilemma- What should I do?

[FredaFrogspawn]

I found some sunglasses where we were sitting while in a big busy London park with DGC - they played with them for a bit and we hung out in that spot for a while (maybe 45 minutes- 1 hour). I took them home as no one came back for them and I thought they were fairly cheap. I am not at all into fashion and am clueless about things like this, having never bought sunglasses for more then a tenner myself.

I have just googled them and they’re £185. I feel bad for whoever lost them.

What would you do in this situation?

Living in the South Wilts area I'm still very much of the 'if you didn't drop it don't pick it up' mindset (since 2018, but with a resurgence for the covid era!) so am slightly horrified you let your dgc pick them up and play with them in the first place, never mind took them home!

I once left a makeup bag with some expensive products on a bench in a London Park - when I realised and went back it had gone. I went to the park rangers office to check if someone handed it in - they hadn’t- who would want to use someone else’s make up is beyond me - but maybe try this ?

Why not take them back to the park AND put on a local Facebook group. They don't belong to you. Would you have taken a purse with £185 ? Or if the sunglasses were in your neighbours' house or in the street? I speak as someone who left my prescription sunglasses in the park last week and they were gone when I went back. No good to anyone else but I suppose the frames were nice.

I would conclude that there is nothing you can do to get these back to the owners.
You picked them up not knowing. In a London park, if you had left them, someone else would have had them within a few minutes tbh.
These things happen. If it were a phone, a wallet or a bag it would be different. But it's an item that can't be traced to the owner by you.
I'd chill out about it. They dont have a value to anyone else.

Why did you even take them OP? would have left them there. Maybe the person went back realising they were missing but you’d taken them.

Surely if you found them in long grass it was better to pick them up than leave them? If you hadn’t they could’ve been trodden on or chewed up in the mower.

This is my last post on this thread now although if I find the owner I will post an update for those many posters who helped with good suggestions.

In the meantime to save more posters saying the same thing:

Yes I regret picking them up - had they been on a bench I wouldn’t have done so. They weren’t visible on passing. They were in long grass which is mowed every month in the summer. We sat and played there which is how we found them. But I do regret taking them home although I don’t think leaving them in the long grass was a great idea either.

I genuinely thought they were cheapies and was not pleased to find they were expensive, costing new £185. I feel for the person who lost them. I want to reunite them with their owner.

They may be prescription but if so, very weak reading glass varifocals. I’m not able to tell.

On the suggestion of several helpful posters, I have started my first ever Facebook page and posted on the nearest community site. I’ve had one response so far - not those glasses sadly. I didn’t specify make or colour in post.

I have posted in a lost in London site - one response, not the same glasses or park sadly.

I have emailed the park rangers - no response yet.

I have been on Met Police site for advice. They said low value unidentifiable item found - dispose of yourself if you can’t see them and these whose item it was. High value - take to police station. This will be my last step of Facebook and lost in London site posts don’t work.

I have been called a liar. I have been called a thief. I have been called strange and weird and filthy.

I have also been helped by some lovely posters.

I did ask for opinions so I’m not complaining but it has been an eye opening experience about how people feel and behave. Thank you all - and I’d now appreciate it if this thread could sink, although I realise that is not my right to expect.

You sound really nice Op, but I’d not lose sleep over this. It’s a total bitch for the person but the chances of reunification are so small I think you need to let it go.

Well done, OP. Close the thread down and let the thief-criers get back to polishing their haloes (or halos: insert plural of choice).

Only on Mumsnet would poor OP be completely torn to shreds about a secondhand pair of sunnies, yet ask about reporting a benefit fraud or flagging up a lazy colleague and you'd be told to stop being so busy because that is absolutely fine and acceptable to let people get away with

There is a website all over London called nextdoor that everyone seems to be on. Things like this get posted there all the time. I'd let people know like that, just where you found them and what day and have the owner tell you the rest. If you suddenly show up in a pair of £185 sunglasses when you normally only buy ones for £10 I reckon your mates will think there is something fishy so at least try to reunite them with the owner so you can tell people with a clear conscience later that you tried to find the owner if you end up keeping them yourself.

This is why I rarely post on MN... absolutely ridiculous comments. OP you've not stolen the sunglasses you are not a thief. Keep them and enjoy some expensive sunglasses fml.

Seriously some of you need to grow up and get a life!

@Flappergasted

So you stole some sunglasses that clear3dudnt belong to you? Do you understand the term theft by finding? It's theft. They aren't yours. You stole them. Hope you can sleep at night. You should have left them where they were.

That escalated quickly!

She found them, put them where they could've seen for 45 minutes, no one came.

I wouldn't have wanted to leave them there because of littering - probably wouldn't have taken them home but may well have binned them if I thought they were cheap.

@tankflybos

But if you can see normal through them why can't you wear them?

Lucky get over it. She's got some bonus sunnies, someone dropped them in long grass never to be found again. It is what it is

She didn't say she has 20/20 vision but she can see her 'normal'

In my experience usually it’s those who shout the loudest/protest the most who have the most to hide.

So, all the self-righteous “you’re a thief/how do you sleep at night” etc bitches likely commit their own transgressions in other areas. Adultery maybe, or benefit fraud, or tax evasion. So they use that one thing they wouldn’t do as a means to show what lovely people they really are. Except if one could see behind the username and know the person, you’d probably see something entirely different.

@AlternativePerspective

In my experience usually it’s those who shout the loudest/protest the most who have the most to hide.

So, all the self-righteous “you’re a thief/how do you sleep at night” etc bitches likely commit their own transgressions in other areas. Adultery maybe, or benefit fraud, or tax evasion. So they use that one thing they wouldn’t do as a means to show what lovely people they really are. Except if one could see behind the username and know the person, you’d probably see something entirely different.

That is a very alternative perspective indeed 🤣

I have certainly done so - my sunglasses are prescription and cost a fortune
And I’d expect random strangers not to take things that don’t belong to them in the first place

Same with mine but i simply couldnt be assed to backtrack, many wouldnt
Its just shit luck they were dropped and someone elses lucky day

I am glad you are trying to reunite the glasses with their owner. I am amazed at all the times people have kindly returned things to me--my phone, my ipad, my wallet, even eighty dollars I dropped in a parking lot of a grocery store that was turned in to the store manager. I am constantly dropping and losing things and having kind people chase me down and bring them back to me. It is very inspiring to see this honesty when it happens.

I can't believe the vitriol of some of the posters. The op is not a thief. If you lot have lost expensive sun glasses then I am sorry for you but you should take better care of your property. If the op had left the sunglasses there the chances are someone else would have just picked them up thinking finders keepers. The op is trying to reunite the glasses with the owner which is a lot more than many others would do!