Nope. You tried. Donate it to charity if it bugs you.

I don't think I'd do anything differently in the situation described. Not much one can do.

I've regularly had money fall out of my pocket. If I have a good idea where and when I dropped it (standing in the bar next to the pool table, fishing for beer money), I'll go back and check. But only if it's been 15 minutes or fewer. Otherwise, I don't bother and chalk it up to my own stupidity and shallow pockets.

You didn't do anything wrong, danf, and you were a good guy for looking for the loser instead of pocketing the bill and dashing off.

Give it to someone who needs it more than you do (unless your city doesn't have a visible homeless problem, in which case buy yourself some coffee and leave the remainder as a tip).

You did exactly as I would have done, so I think you did the right thing. When I've found a decent chunk of change ($10, $20 or so) I've donated it, but I wouldn't fault anyone for keeping it.

I don't think there's anything else you could have done, danf. If it were me, I'd use it as 'pay it forward' money, giving someone a treat with it, for no good reason except that I can.

We have a very visible homeless population. Lots of folks on street corners with signs. Also a lot of jobs available here, so my giving is institutional, to soup kitchens and such. Or in the form of bus tokens, which the recipients usually scoff at.

I also tip quite generously, esp if the people have min. wage jobs.

So, anyway, I "broke" the twenty this morning. Life will go on, and I am hoping that whoever lost it is not hurting for it.

Um...I lost a twenty today!! It's probably mine. Please Fed Ex it to me:

Skygazer,
11211 Bklyn, NYC.

(Fed Ex will be able to find me.) Thxbye.



Ahh...ha. I make jokey joke. Did you get that it was a..uh joke.... *Sound of pin dropping*

Seriously Danf, I admire the ethical concerns you feel. Last time I found a Twenty. I thought "Hey!! It's Christmas!! and pocket that sucker toute suite. But than again I live in a city where $20 bucks is not going to break the bank. Anyhow, when I do find money I invariably buy someone lunch or a drink to celebrate my good luck. You should too.

I didn't mean to imply you were stingy, danf. I just wanted to suggest some ways you could pass it along if you felt any moral pangs at keeping it. I would probably have spent it post haste.

Always burn found money. You have no idea how many germs it carries.

I found a ladies' watch outside of Barnes & Noble last weekend, so I brought it inside to have them put it in the lost and found. I had to wait five minutes for a manager, because I wanted to make sure it wasn't pocketed by one of the employees (Full Disclosure: I've stolen from the lost & found in my retail past). The guy asked me if he should call me if no one claims it. I was all, uh...no. Then he asked, "Well, what if they want to give you a reward?" I told him that I didn't expect one. Would you?

Yeah, the "reward" thing can be so weird. Once I found a twenty in the lint trap of the dryer in my apartment, and it belonged to my roommate, and she INSISTED on GIVING me 10 bucks.

You're a good guy, danf. :)

Well once my glasses and work radio (walkie-talkie) were taken of the porch of my home. I had left them there at lunch (after stopping to water the garden after lunch at home).

Later, some woman turned in the radio (it had my employer's ID) and requested a reward. There was none, but I am pretty sure that she took the glasses also, which I never got back.

I found £20 on the ground once. I wrote the police to ask if anyone had reported a lost £20 in that area and they said that no one had.

You're a good guy, danf. :)

God knows, I try.







cops a feel

well let me turn this around a bit. I've both lost and found cash (I think we can all say we have). I usually do the same thing, danf - look around, see if anyone's visibly distressed, then (assuming it's $10 or $20) I pocket it with a shrug. Were it more than $20, neh, I dunno BUT here's another sitch for you. Story time:

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I was a broke and very-nearly-homeless skate rat. This was, oh, back in '86 or '87, when I was still struggling to make it on my own as a marginally employed, unskilled teenager with a purple mohawk and a permanent mope. That was the day (one of many) I skateboarded to my shitty minimum wage McJob in the freezing cold rain in lovely downtown Dayton, Ohio - because yo, I didn't even have the friggin' thirty-five cents for bus fare. It was the end of December, I had just gotten unceremoniously dumped by a boyfriend, had a shitty Christmas, got handed crap shifts for the holidays since I was low man on the totem pole (making something less than $4/hour might I add) and to top it off, I had zero fucking clue how I was even going to eat for the next few days, much less pay rent + utilities.

That, my dear bunnies, was the day I found a $100 bill in the gutter. It was wet and rumpled and filthy, but then, so was I. Yeah, you'd better damn sight be certain I snatched Ol' Ben right up, made sure he wasn't fake, and took him straight off to the bank, where I used him to buy food and ensure that my heat didn't get turned off.

Not an urban myth, nor really a fable with any intended moral, here. Sometimes found money is just that: found money.

Some guy insisted on giving me a $20 for finding his stray dog and carrying it home with me. It was kind of funny- this little, over-manicured lhasa apso answering the call of the wild- bounding over the weeds in a very rural area. It was so out of place- like a super urban club girl abruptly transported to Denali.

lfr, I've also found money (three twenties and a ten in my life) when I was on the ropes, and on the ropes only. Once, I had lost my wallet and found a twenty. Food. To this day I would take the found money and use it as a gift from the universe.

I found $60.00 at work last year and turned it in (it was right by a check-out register). Turns out it was lost by someone in the pharmacy. She was so grateful that she bought me lottery tickets (the scratch-off kind). I didn't win squat, but it's the thought that counts.

I also remember leaving work one day and finding a ten dollar bill stuck under one of my tires. That was a nice surprise.

In college I found a hundred dollar bill. It was just outside a campus restaurant so I turned it in to the restaurant manager. I thought the owner would come to claim it, but the manager was skeptical. She told me to return in two weeks. I did, and I got the money.

I wondered about that. The manager was amazed that someone would turn in a hundred dollar bill. The owner either didn't know how they lost it or didn't think it would be turned in. I suppose it would be hard to prove ownership. If I lost a hundred dollars, I'd look in every lost and found... I wouldn't care what people thought of me. But since I'd done what I could, I didn't feel bad spending the money. I might feel bad spending found money now, because I have a job.

Perhaps you could donate $20 to a charity, danf.

with a purple mohawk

pix plz, kthxbai!