if you found £100 at a cash point

[hatstand]

what would you do? just sort of waving at you from the cash bit, the person who last used it was clearly a f/w and just left it there...

Sorry Lonelymum I meant to say at least you're honest and I'm sorry things are so tight. I do know where you're comign from

When my dh's brother got married, they got a lot of cash and cheques from people. So he put it all into an envelope along with his bank details, and he put it into the special postbox outside his bank for transactions. Unfortunately someone saw him, they managed to fish the envelope out and spent all the cash.

I would hand any money in I found no matter how broke I was. You have no idea who has left the money, it could be a similar story to Lonelymum, an old person who is forgetful, etc. Behind every bank note there is a story, a person. Stealing is stealing and it affects somebody. I wouldn't like it to happen to me, so I would deffo hand it in.

LM - I admire your honesty but no, personally no matter how hard up i was, I would still have to hand it in. It would play on my conscience too much.

If dh kept it, had he found it, I would go ballistic at him.

I would hand it in, I would expect the CCTV to have filmed me Aanyway but to me that is too much to keep..however if i found a twenty pound note in the gutter I would keep it.

A policeman just rang me a few minutes ago an d frightened me halg to death asking if i was dd2s mum...he then said I have dd2 mobile..so someone must have handed it in

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Cliff, are you saying I am an old forgetful person?

In my defence, can I tell you when I was a young teenager, or maybe 11ish, I found £3 in my local high street and walked some distance out of my way to hand it in to the police station. They were openly staggered that I had bothered to do this - I know £3 doesn't sound much and I would definitely keep it if I found such an amount now, but it was worth more in those days (30 years ago) and was worth more to me then than £100 is to me now probably. Anyway, I felt a bit of a green fool for handing it in - the police made me feel that way.

I must admit the presence of CCTV hadn't occurred to me - that might put me off - and I didn't know that the money would be automatically reclaimeed by the machine and credited to the withdrawer's account. Knowing that, I might just guard it and wait for it to be reclaimed. But if it was a question of I have it or the next person does, who has no more claim to it than me, then yes, I would take it. Why not?

Last year, walking on the beach, I found a sodden £20 note in the surf, no-one around. Now go on, tell me you wouldn't have picked that up. I did and we had a nice fish and chip supper on the beach, watching the sunset, very romantic, very special memory, and no I didn't choke on a fish bone!

I know the £100 in the cash machine isn't quite the same thing, but I just wnated to show you how the boundaries can be blurred. (And also let you know how the police regard honest people who hand in money found in the street.)

Out of interest, I have just gone and asked dh what he would do and his automatic response was "Check if there was a CCTV camera!" So if I am dishonest, at least I am married to someone equally dishonest! (or we understand our financial situation).

I found £100 sticking out of a cash machine when I was a teen. It was several hours until the bank opened so I took it to the nearest police station.

It was classed as lost goods, in this case the owner has a certain period of time during which they can claim their belongings, they didn't so it was returned to me.

Clear conscience and £100

I was made to feel so foolish by the police for handing in my £3 that I didn't bother going back to find out if it was reclaimed. Obviously it wouldn't have been, so I did myself out of £3. Who knows, if I had reclaimed it and invested it wisely, I might not be in the financial mire I now find myself!

It's physically taking something that could be returned though, out of cash machine.
£20 in the sand or in the street is different, althugh I'd probably still hand in anything over £20, if no one claims it, it comes back to you anyway.
Having spent many years of my life on the bones of my arse financially, that is enough to prevent me from taking someone elses money.
If the police made me feel like mug for handing it in, it's nothing to how I would feel by keeping something that was nt mine.

I think if you find anything under a tenner in the street then you can keep it legally, but over a tenner and you have a duty to report it.

If it was just lying in the street, I guess the chances of finding the owner would be pretty remote. Having said that I would probably go into the nearest shop, explain that I had found some money and give them my details in case the owner came back looking for it.

But money sticking out of a cash machine, well the owner can be traced therefore it's a bit different. You know you could return it to it's rightful owner but you choose not to, so it's stealing.

Happymum, sorry I was thinking of puff and typed in your name by mistake!

Damn, now I've gone and called you Happymum! Are you? See, I am that forgetful dizzy person who would actually do this!

I take it you mean me. I feel a bit of a shit now, but I still believe that a lot of people would do the same as me.

Of course, after this thread, I wouldn't now! I would know the machine would reclaim it and I would wait for that to happen.

But if I found it lying in the street - yes I would have it and consider my luck was in that day.

I'd never be lucky enough to find £100 anywhere, so I suppose it's a moot point.

No Lonelymum, you are right, a lot of people would do as you did, no matter what they say on here. One of those annoying TV programs did this, they left some money sticking out of a cashpoint to see if the person behind would be honest. Only one person was. They also got a man to stand with a car at the side of a road pretending to have run out of petrol. When a car stopped he asked them if they would fill up his container with petrol and gave them a tenner to do so. Only one person came back with the petrol.

They did loads of stuff testing people's honesty. And there are a LOT of dishonest people out there. I hate this deliberate snaring of people, but it did shock me at the time that so many people were dishonest.

Gosh the petrol one I would never be dishonest about! That is shocking!

I suppose a lot of people might not see the difference, but if I took money from someone, I would definitely be honest with it, ie return with the petrol. It is finding something lying around with no obvious owner that tempts me.

An old woman once walked away leaving £10 sticking out. I called her back for it!

I found GBP 100 sticking out of the cashpoint once about 15 years ago and took it back to the bank the next morning. They took my bank card details and said they would be able to trace the person who had used the machine before me and credit their account.

I'd probably hand it in.

The other day i went to insert my card and it read, 'do you want another service?'.
Someone had actually left their card in and account open. I withdrew the card and carried it around for an hour looking for the right bank to hand it in to. Ended up back where i'd started bloody OBVIOUSLY where the cash point was and handed it in inside and explained to the woman. I felt great that i'd done the right thing

At the cash point though i had got a bit paranoid and started looking around thinking it was a set up, like candid camera!

A lot of cash machines have CCTV, i'd hand it in.

because i believe in karma, i would hand it in...

Quick hijack, hiya lunarx, thanks for the postcard! My email has gone wonky therefore haven't replied to your last

heh hiya Miaou, glad it got to you okay!!!!!