Would you (moral question)

Viper² · 24 Jul 2009 at 11:35

Missing.String said:
They could just share the prize, that seems like the fairest option imo.

Agreed. I'd share it.

Hitman_Leon · 24 Jul 2009 at 11:39

Guest2 said:
Dont think this would work. The buyer would have the rights to the ticket so therefore try and screw the finder over.

What would happen if I found a ticket, found the buyer of the ticket and told them if they demanded the ticket back by going to the police, i would burn it.

True would not work as things stand, it would need putting into the terms and conditions when you buy a ticket, just seems a good way to sort the problem.

sorn21 · 24 Jul 2009 at 11:41

After a few situations where I've found things and handed it in without even a finders fee returned to me (talking quite a few hundred pounds!) I tend to be very wary about what I give back now. I would've kept it. Likelihood is someone else in the street could've found it before me, better I than them!

Nitefly · 24 Jul 2009 at 11:42

skolem said:
Good for you. Drives me mad if someone marks my car but doesn't own up. I wouldn't want any money off the person if they did tell me (given my car isn't worth more than a few grand anyway), but it's the fact they didn't own up that gets to me.

Haha, I wish I hit your car

I did this yesterday morning on the way to work - unfathomably stupid mistake on my behalf, with more damage done to my car! Sadly, the scrape on his was across two body panals...

He was thankful for my honesty, but I imagine I lost around a weeks wages on insurance premiums

markweatherill · 24 Jul 2009 at 11:43

The best analogy I can think of to make some sense of this is:
The lady lost her bank card with the PIN written on it and a letter saying her inheritance was due to be paid in on Saturday.
The couple found them and on the Saturday withdrew £30,000.
A lottery ticket is much more ephemeral but that is just a distraction from the above principle.

iJedi · 24 Jul 2009 at 11:48

honestly id of kept it, wouldnt of handed it in for a few weeks (wait for the dust to settle see if anyone knotices it missing)

then id think to myself, how i wouldnt of lost a winning lottery ticket if it was mine to begin with!

Nitefly · 24 Jul 2009 at 11:50

skolem said:
Hmm, I don't know about letting people off for metal crunching scrapes along multiple panels , I was thinking more along the lines of smaller scuffs - like the ones on my car at the moment that no-one owned up for!

But still good work on the owning up, you know it's how you would have wanted it the other way round.

It sounds a lot worse than it is, there is a moderate, but small in size scrape, that happens to lie on the edge between two panels... just my luck. I know I did the right thing. I guess I'll just take this as some sort of lesson learned (don't be rubbish

).

Guest2 · 24 Jul 2009 at 11:54

markweatherill said:
The best analogy I can think of to make some sense of this is:
The lady lost her bank card with the PIN written on it and a letter saying her inheritance was due to be paid in on Saturday.
The couple found them and on the Saturday withdrew £30,000.
A lottery ticket is much more ephemeral but that is just a distraction from the above principle.

To withdraw 30k from someones account wouldnt you need ID, a lot of ID in fact

Banzai_Joe · 24 Jul 2009 at 11:55

skolem said:
What's so difficult to understand? It isn't yours just because you found it, it belongs to someone else, they just lost it.

How about I'll find your car by the side of the road. How careless of you, finders keepers though, it's mine mine mine!
Obviously that's a different situation, but the same principle applies. If you find something then it belongs to someone else, so you should hand it in otherwise it's theft. If it isn't claimed, it becomes legally discarded and you get to keep it. Otherwise it is returned to the owner.

Interesting that people think it's OK to steal when the victim is faceless and the chances of getting caught are practically 0. That doesn't make it right!

With you on this mate 100%

I'd keep it, and may give some of the money to the person who claims to have owned it, if they can prove the bought it!

Lol, plonker! If they proved its theirs they'd get ALL the money and you'd have nowt but a slapped wrist (or 11 month suspended) for being dishonest!

The guy who found a wokring blackberry and kept it? = scumbag. It would have been easy to find the owner from various info on the device and get it back to them.

Shame on you.

markweatherill · 24 Jul 2009 at 12:08

Guest2 said:
To withdraw 30k from someones account wouldnt you need ID, a lot of ID in fact

OK, £300 then. It's scaled down!

meghatronic · 24 Jul 2009 at 12:25

Swindon woman whose winning lottery ticket was found and cashed in by someone else has been told she will be paid more than half the original prize.
Dorothy McDonagh, 61, dropped the ticket on the floor of her local Co-op.
Michael and Amanda Stacey, 34, who spent half the money, were later given 11-month suspended sentences for fraud.
A judge at Swindon Crown Court ordered Michael Stacey to pay Dorothy McDonagh £15,111 - the £111 being interest on the payment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/8166483.stm

Skiddley · 24 Jul 2009 at 12:30

If i saw them drop it, or knew them, I'd hand it back. If the owner was unknown & I had to hand it to a 3rd party, I'd keep it.

ac1d1ty · 24 Jul 2009 at 12:37

Guest2 said:
To withdraw 30k from someones account wouldnt you need ID, a lot of ID in fact

Actually, when my dad purchased my mother a BMW convertible he took out money (something like 15,000) with only a passport.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 24 Jul 2009 at 12:48

Of course its always possible she had filled in the back bit of the ticket with address etc (ie to stop someone stealing it) and then they had to pretend to be her to actually claim it?

DreadNiK · 24 Jul 2009 at 12:53

fair enough if the person can prove it was theirs they can claim back the money, however I think there should definately be a finders fee to the person who found it, as there was every chance the ticket could have just gotten destroyed/binned/whatever...

to give the person a criminal (or is it civil?) record for what they did is ******* bonkers...I think you could make a good case for entrapment, 30k is just too tempting....

dowie · 24 Jul 2009 at 13:03

Abraham said:
just seen that they already received 11 month suspended sentences for theft, that's crazy! :/

fair enough tbh...

they're basically trying to fraudulently claim 30k that doesn't belong to them - they deserve a criminal record because they are untrustworthy/dishonest people

DreadNiK · 24 Jul 2009 at 13:07

its hardly fraud though is it, it isn't like they were like 'right how can I get 30k?' and came up with a scheme to get it off someone else by deception...

They found a lottery ticket on the floor, presumably with no obvious way of returning it to its rightful owner, and then the ticket won 30k and they claimed it...I'd have done the same. Frankly the onus should be on the person who bought the ticket to keep ahold of it, otherwise I could go around dropping my belongings about and then bringing charges against people who find them and don't return them to me...

Mr-White · 24 Jul 2009 at 13:10

So if it wasn't for him finding the ticket she wouldn't have got a penny.

I hope he uses the money to pay his court costs

MW