Finders keepers?

[AldiBag4Life]

My DD18 told me last week she found an item of jewellery in a grass verge randomly one day when she was out walking to work - 6 months ago.

I recently complemented her wearing it and asked about it - she told me she found it and said she assumed it was just junk jewellery, but it turns out from my research when I looked at it the markings, it’s worth quite a lot of money.

It has no personal inscription on it (its not a ring) and I haven’t seen a post on our local group from anyone who has lost anything although I did tell her she could put a post up and if anyone described it then she should give it back.

She hasn’t put a post up and she is planning on keeping it, not cos it’s worth money she just likes it, she isn’t selling it.

I’m kind of feeling weird about it because it might be sentimental to someone. WWYD?

No moral compass in society these days.
it’s irrelevant whether it’s legally wrong, it’s just not how we should treat other people and their belongings.

Turnt isn’t a word 🙊

Buildings have floors. If you’re outside then it’s the GROUND!

also, theft by find is a criminal offence! She most certainly HAS done something wrong. You don’t sound very knowledgeable at all

You didn’t find it on the floor you found it on the GROUND!!!!! Buildings have floors. If you’re outside then it’s the GROUND! 🤦🏼‍♀️ Jesus H Christ

also, theft by find is a criminal offence! She most certainly HAS done something wrong. You don’t sound very knowledgeable at all

@SchoolTripDrama

Sentences should begin with a capital letter and finish with an ending mark.

Just last week in the arcade at our holiday park, my DD found 10 prize tickets hanging out of a machine. The arcade was now empty so I suggested she keep them but she insisted she hand them in and refused to keep them because they weren't hers. She's 8. I'd be utterly appalled if she had found jewellery (or anything tbh) and she didn't at least attempt to find the owner. Though she'd not dream of such a thing

this is the most batshit thread I've ever read. thanks for giving me a good laugh this morning

Same 🤣🤣🤣

To be fair, I wouldn't have any qualms about taking tickets hanging out of arcade machines. It's not like they're special to anybody or even worth very much at all.

Children are usually very focused on taking them as soon as they come out (then they subsequently realise that leaving them in longer strips would have been much easier for everybody!) Adults (who don't have their own children to give them to) usually don't care and either give them to a passing child or just leave them for one to take anyway - they have better things to do than to queue up to see if they have enough to get a tube of Chewits or a cardboard fidget spinner!

Right after mam died I dropped her ring (it was a family heirloom) which I had stuck in my pocket when my dad handed it to me and I couldn't think straight. Luckily I spotted it as it was shiny but it could easily have got lost.

Even if it wasn't expensive you have no idea if its sentimental to someone or what they are going through.

'She hasn’t put a post up and she is planning on keeping it, not cos it’s worth money she just likes it, she isn’t selling it.'

Your daughter does not sound like a very empathetic or nice person honestly, even if she mindlessly thought it was junk and was unaware its theft (if you believe her story) now you have told her she still only cared about herself (which indicates she likely knew all along and is just selfish).

My son is the 14 nearly 15 so also a lockdown kid who missed school right at the transition between school with virtually no social circle as a result and is even autistic and he straight up knows its wrong (and he has actually taken stuff he has found to the police before on his own accord) so I don't buy those excuses.

Finders needing to hand things in is taught in primary school when the police come in. My youngest son is 4 and just had a school visit in march that covered it (the whole 'what would you do if you found £5' then flipped to 'how would you feel if you had lost £5' and how someone might need that £5).

At 18 you straight up know when your being dishonest for your own benefit and you know its wrong theres not really a way to excuse it.

I’ve only read the first two pages, but seen lots of people saying hand it in to the police. Our police station will NOT accept lost property anymore - not even if you found a wad of cash or house/car keys in the street! I imagine there are many other police stations with the same policy.

if I were to find something, I’d start with social media - then if it were something valuable, I’d probably put a poster up where I found it with my number on for someone to contact me. If it were a low value item, I might just put it somewhere visible near where I found it (eg yesterday there was a dropped glove in a car park, so I popped it on top of a nearby bin). Could your daughter (assuming it’s not been claimed yet) put a poster up where she found it?

Clearly your standards are pretty low. How would you be feeling if it was your property.

My DD is fine thanks, not the next Donald Trump or masterminding a gang of thieves. She didn’t think about it, she just was more blank minded about it than intentionally trying to take something special from someone. She was busy at the time, distracted she said, and just saw it and auto pilot picked it up, put in pocket (it was winter) didn’t really know what to do, and forgot for ages, didn’t think about it. She’s thought about it now as I explained. Please stop making up how horrible my child is just read what I posted after the Op - she’s looking for the owner who we have not found yet and she’s not worn it again. Lesson learned - young people are still learning about life and this was a life lesson, ok? ✌🏼

I do think half the comments on here are a bit dramatic 🤣 as you say I expect your dd just didn’t really think about it. It’s not that deep. If someone desperately wanted their jewellery back they’d be posting everywhere and she’d have seen. I feel sorry for you having received unsolicited comments about your dd from people who don’t know you or your dd. Ignore them!!!

If I hadn't spotted my mams ring when I dropped it I would have no idea where it was lost, I have no photos of it to post and with grief and funeral arrangements no time to be blanketing Facebook with post and what would it say?

'has anyone found a white gold, diamond and pearl cluster ring, could have fallen out in the hospital any of these 2 counties I traveled across to get home, maybe in the petrol station, supermarket, car park or hell could even be in my car or in my house somewhere... well let me know if you think you might have something like it'.

Then half the people I know don't even use facebook anymore, so in that case should I have be driving back taping missing ring posters on lamp posts?

Things that are lost are lost usually because the person doesn't KNOW where it is, so it's about as useful as those facebook moms that post missing dog post from Australia when they live in Brighton.

How would you know nobody is looking for it? A few years ago the clasp on a bracelet I was wearing must have come undone and dropped. It was the last gift I got from my grandma before she died and I was devastated that I'd lost it i still get upset thinking about it. Its horrible to think someone might have found it and just decided to keep it with absolutely no thought over how the original owner might be suffering.

@Keyan

I don't see anything wrong with this?? If you find something on the floor in public and nobody is around looking for it then it is okay IMO to have it.

Really?

100% wrong. You CAN keep it if you like, if no-one is around, no cameras or anything, and you don't know whose it is, but it's against the law to keep it. Whatever you find, you should, strictly speaking hand it in ... Either to police, or a reception area of a building you find it, or customer services, if it's in a shopping area. If you have nowhere to take it, put it on a facebook village or town page or something.

There's a difference between finding 50p on the floor, and finding someone's purse with £300 in it of course. Not sure where you'd draw the line TBH. It largely depends on circumstances. EG, my brother found £40 - 2 X £20 notes in the outside mens loos on the floor, in a seaside town we were in about 10 years ago. No-one else in there, and we didn't see anyone come out. So he kept it.

Same amount of money - almost .. A man withdrew £50 from a cashpoint in town about 5 years ago, and forgot to take the money out, and the next man at the cashpoint, whipped it out and pocketed it. There was cctv at the cashpoint. He got a £1000 fine, and a criminal record, and his face all over the local news and newspapers and all the villages and towns facebook pages.

Hard one, but basically yeah, anything you take is theft. Even taking a cutting from someone's bush that's hanging over their fence is theft. It's their bush, you've no right taking a cutting from it.

@SecretsIWouldNeverTell

Same amount of money - almost .. A man withdrew £50 from a cashpoint in town about 5 years ago, and forgot to take the money out, and the next man at the cashpoint, whipped it out and pocketed it. There was cctv at the cashpoint. He got a £1000 fine, and a criminal record, and his face all over the local news and newspapers and all the villages and towns facebook pages.

Did the man who took the money watch the guy walk away, not saying anything and then pocket the cash, or did he walk up to a cash point and find £50 there with no one around?

If the latter, the local response sounds a bit extreme.