Finders Keepers?? AirPods

[UnlimitedCake]

DS (12) recently found some AirPods (don’t know if they are official) on a beach walk with DH and I. DH and I have now had a big fall out over what DS should do with turn. DH told DS they are his to keep and “quick, put them in your pocket before anyone sees!” I told him he should hand them in and that they are not his to keep. DH called me naive, a “nerd” a wimp etc for wanting to do that. I tried telling our son to imagine if he lost something valuable, he would want it back. DH said that’s not how the world works, anyone could come along and lie and claim them.

I tried again telling our son that the right thing to do is to hand in anything you find but I was then made out that I was “upsetting DS” and being “a misery”

We were meant to take DS out for a meal but the atmosphere was so awful that we came straight home. I ruined everything apparently 🙄

So AIBU?! I know I am not but apparently I am now the bad guy for ruining the evening. So what the hell do you do when one parent tries to teach right from wrong and the other just tramples all over it and fights you all the way?!

The temptation I'd have to hide his phone/something valuable and watch the reaction. Selfish shit.

I would be unable to wait until DH lost something, in fact I'd be inclined to 'assist' some spendy item in becoming lost if I possibly could, without getting caught, just to able to say 'Well, serves you right for being so stupid as to lose it/them'...

Fucking hell. Your ‘d’h is an absolute rocket. Your son sounds just as bad! Even my 7 year old knows you don’t just keep expensive stuff you find!

Sorry op but your dh sounds like a right wanker. He needs a taste of his own medicine! That could be something a child got for their birthday, or a teenager paid for with their first wage packet. Horrible example to set ds.

Nah I think you were right OP.
You should try to return property before pocketing it, and if you teach a kid to pocket early doors then you have the potential for them to become an adult who thinks its fine if they find a wallet and keep the money.

Well I would swipe them when they are put on charge or something and take them straight to the police station asap. Let husband go down and try to explain finders keepers to the cops.
Good luck OP. Awful parenting from DH.
I did like someone suggesting that he might “lose “ something very precious in the next few days!

[w]here exactly would you hand them in? It's not like there's a police station on every street corner, or even in every village!

This is exactly what I was going to say. There are very few police stations, and those few aren't open to the public. "Handing them in" isn't an option. Leaving them where they are is. If they are traceable, I suppose you could take them to an Apple store, but that might involve a long journey.

Imagine if a parent or a child saved up their money to buy those, your husband is a cunt, I pity your children with a role model like him. Awful.

Your DH sounds horrible not only for keeping things that are not his but more so for the way he treated you when you tried to do the right thing. He didn't see any nuance or take your point on board at all - it was very clearly his way.

I think that he should have asked those around him if they dropped it and then maybe would have been okay to keep. Airpods can be tracked but they can easily just be reset so the tracking is lost

I also agree with posters upthread that i would have charged it at my house in hope of people tracking them

Christ your DH sounds like a proper tramp trying to get a child to pocket something like that. How embarrassing.
Put them on the local fb page- we didn’t a phone we found and located the owner quickly

I would slowly and stealthily lose every single thing he owns.

If I lost them on my local beach and they were now 50 miles away, I’d be pretty annoyed with whoever moved them!

I’d seriously hide one of your partner’s important possessions and not say a word. Make sure your DS hears him being annoyed. When you’re alone with DS say ‘do you think that’s how the owner of the AirPods might feel?’.

Also he is an abusive twat talking to you like that in front of your son and I wouldn’t stand for it.

How will he deal with something that can't be traced?
Say he found a bracelet on the path... was one of those ones made with a loved ones ashes. You can't track that... and it is clearly a sentimental item that can't be replaced. Would he be ok pulling the 'finders keepers' crap?

Haha same wavelength as me 🤣

Feel really sad reading this, your DH really has low standards and it’s so sad he’s passing this message on to your son 😞. Feeling very sad for the poor person (maybe another child/teenager who saved up to buy them). Imagine if your DH lost his phone/wallet and someone just swiped it.

He’s a real shit.

My son has found 2 phones on the beach. The first one I took to the beach cafe and managed to call the owner. They were tourists, so well out of the area, but I left the phone at the cafe for them to return to collect. The other time, we found a man looking for his phone and gave it to him, he gave my young son £5 for finding it.
YANBU your DH is teaching your son poor morals.
When my DC was around 5, they left their brand new Nintendo DS, that they had been given for their birthday, in the swimming pool changing rooms. It can’t have been more than a few minutes before we realised and rushed back. It was nowhere to be seen, someone had stolen it. I reported it to the staff and rang a couple of times in case it turned up. My DC was heartbroken and, as a single parent, I couldn’t afford to replace it. Some people are just awful and have no morals. They took it knowing that it belonged to a young child, it had stickers on it.

My DH once had a fungal infection in his ear. He wears AirPods…

🥴

For some reason, this thread has really upset me. They could have been lost by a 13 year old lad, his Xmas pressie perhaps.

Your husband is a twat.

You definitely can't keep! It's stealing, legally.
Also, if theyre legit, they DO have tracking, a very intimidating man showed up at my house last week, claiming his stolen jacket with airpods inside the pocket was pinging GPS in our street. Which house it thought they were in kept switching, but ours was one of 3 it showed in multiple times. He was out there for hours, watching the house, and my dad had to literally tell him we'd told him multiple times we didn't have his stuff, and if he didn't move from parked outside our house he was going to call the police.
You have no idea who they belong to, or what they'd be willing to do to get them back.

Report it online as found property to the police... They won't insist on you physically handing it in, and if no one claims them after a month, you can keep them guilt free.

I have found a few things before and helped the owners locate them by posting on local Facebook pages. I also left at a child's phone at a local hotel and joined and posted on a local Facebook site (I didn't know it was a child's phone at the time). I didn't want to take the phone back with me as I was 30 miles from home.

The 2 occasions when it was a mobile the owners were so relieved to find the phones. Both belonged to children. The parents said they were very distressed. I think your DH is being very selfish and I'm sorry he didn't listen to you. Hopefully the owner will be in touch. I would be tempted to post on local pages anyhow and hopefully the owner will be in touch. I would also be taking the AirPods off my DS and explain the reasons why.

Your DH is leading a bad example and you are trying to lead the right example. Well done :)

Well the only moral thing to do with finding anything is to turn them in. X