Careful if you see money on the floor & pick it up.

Hotwired · 2 Mar 2017 at 10:44

Fishbait said:
According to reports that investigated police, they're letting much worse crimes slip than this one (which I still think should've bene a slap on the wrist instead of charges).

Area I'm in, it's a regular drug dealers nest, yet because at least one of them also snitches on the others, she gets to stay free to carry on her business. If they can't be arsed to nick one dealer, then arresting someone that found a £20 note seems to me way over board.

Well lets see... dim woman caught on camera with witnesses and an annoyed victim for a quick and easy result or....

Spending days trying to get enough evidence to stick on a suspected dealer with a huge maybe over the result.

Funny how they don't find time to harass your dealer.

jimferno · 2 Mar 2017 at 10:45

CaptainComedy said:
Whether the person took reasonable steps or not to me is not worthy of prosecution. The person responsible lost it, another found it.

Whether you care or not of my opinion is your choice - but it's my opinion none the less. Had I lost that money and seen CCTV footage of someone picking it up, I wouldn't press charges!

If it happened to you that would be your choice whether or not to prosecute. Your opinion has no bearing on anyone else's situation.

Society wouldn't work if we all lived by the rule of 'finders keepers'.

Fishbait · 2 Mar 2017 at 11:06

Hotwired said:
Well lets see... dim woman caught on camera with witnesses and an annoyed victim for a quick and easy result or....

Spending days trying to get enough evidence to stick on a suspected dealer with a huge maybe over the result.

Funny how they don't find time to harass your dealer.

Not a suspected dealer, a well known dealer that they let her carry on with her business.

Another example, I was in a shared house years ago. Around noon one day I heard banging that woke me up, went to ask them to keep it down.
Opened bedroom door, police raiding room at back. Apparently the woman had grassed her bf in for dealing, they'd found enough stuff in there as proof.
Later on, she cancelled her evidence, so they had to let him go, despite having found enough to show he was dealing & not just using.
Two weeks later he was back & dealing all over again, no police ever returned.

Battery! · 2 Mar 2017 at 11:11

Glaucus said:
hand it to police not shop. That way you will almost certainly get it back, when it goes unclaimed for more than 6 weeks.
found several hundread in toys r us when i was realy young, and we got the money back after it wasn't claimed, we got a rubber dinghy and parents kept the rest.

Now that is theft by your parents

adam cool dude · 2 Mar 2017 at 11:12

Once found a £20 note on the shop floor of Tesco and pocketed it. I was young though. Used it to buy a Carton of Duty free Marlboro from a Polish girl. Grade A criminal

=XDC=FluphyBunny · 2 Mar 2017 at 11:19

I think the key facts were the money was left in a shop and she denied taking it.

I would imagine there was plenty of opportunities for her to simply apologise and hand the money over and not waste the police nor courts time.

Orionaut · 2 Mar 2017 at 11:49

=XDC=FluphyBunny said:
I think the key facts were the money was left in a shop and she denied taking it.

I would imagine there was plenty of opportunities for her to simply apologise and hand the money over and not waste the police nor courts time.

Denial certainly implies that she knew she had done something wrong (morally if not, in her own mind, actually criminal)

ubersonic · 2 Mar 2017 at 11:50

Fishbait said:
No idea why "She initially denied taking it, but admitted it when she was shown the CCTV footage." but I think a charge of theft is really too far for this.

Why that's the charge for the crime, it's always surprising how many people seem to think that "finders keepers" is a real thing. If you find something which a reasonable person would know has an owner who has lost it and you opt to keep it instead of turning it in then that is stealing, always has been.

SC0TTRS · 2 Mar 2017 at 12:05

Glaucus said:
hand it to police not shop. That way you will almost certainly get it back, when it goes unclaimed for more than 6 weeks.

It's 6 months not 6 weeks.

StriderX · 2 Mar 2017 at 12:20

Lol, I'd rather burn the money than let it waste away for half a bloody year.

"reasonable means" for a £20 note that likely most don't care for or know that the police even handles it in the first place, is to just be a thieving ***** and move on.

Englander91 · 2 Mar 2017 at 12:26

StriderX said:
Lol, I'd rather burn the money than let it waste away for half a bloody year.

You could even do it in front of a homeless person.

Greebo · 2 Mar 2017 at 13:17

Jono said:
I found a fiver at hamsterley forest, just sat on a bit of fire road. Caught a couple of lads up who were just ahead and asked them if they'd lost anything. They said no, so I asked if they were sure. They rifled through their pockets and one said "oh damn, lost my fiver " He got his fiver back.

Hamsterley Forest? That popular dogging place? OK..............

Greebo · 2 Mar 2017 at 13:19

Mr Badger said:
Thinking about it the story reminds me of an experience I had in a London bar. I was waiting to be served and a loud guy with an American accent got the drinks in for a group of people and managed to drop a wedge of £20 notes on the floor behind him. No one noticed this so I picked it up, tapped him on the shoulder and said that I thought he had dropped it. He shoved the money back in his pocket and carried on being loud talking with his crowd. If the situation had been reversed I'm sure I would have at least offered to buy the finder a drink!

Anyway to my mind if you think you know who has lost some money then keeping it is theft. If you find it blowing down the street with no one around then maybe it's just your lucky day.

Bloody Americans. I was working a bar in London and found an Americans wallet left on the chair with about £2k in it and all his credit cards, driving licence etc. I checked with reception and found he was staying in the hotel and got a message to him. He came and collected it, checked to make sure all his two grand was in it and then left without even giving me a tip. Miserable git

Greebo · 2 Mar 2017 at 13:22

Ahleckz said:
There's a bar I sometimes drink in that's got a 50p coin superglued to the floor on the way to the toilets. Quite funny watching people (nay, thieves) try and pick it up.

There used to be a gay bar in York with pound coins glued to the floor...........

Greebo · 2 Mar 2017 at 13:25

CaptainComedy said:
Whether the person took reasonable steps or not to me is not worthy of prosecution. The person responsible lost it, another found it.

Whether you care or not of my opinion is your choice - but it's my opinion none the less. Had I lost that money and seen CCTV footage of someone picking it up, I wouldn't press charges!

Not sure its a case of the down to the loser as to whether to press charges but more a case of the Police's decision?

ANyway its the law, if you don't like it write to your MP to get it changed.,

ebilcake · 2 Mar 2017 at 13:31

Morally questionably, but definitely not criminal or deserving of punishment.

I would have pocketed it as well.

Adnams Drinker · 2 Mar 2017 at 13:46

I know I'm going to sound like a stereotypical Daily Mail reader, but frankly, I can't help feeling the police probably have better things to be doing with their time ...

ebilcake · 2 Mar 2017 at 13:58

Adnams Drinker said:
I know I'm going to sound like a stereotypical Daily Mail reader, but frankly, I can't help feeling the police probably have better things to be doing with their time ...

This "crime" is now included in their statistics and as such national statistics, disappointed the Police never give them grief for wasting time and put the phone down, that's what should have happened.

Glaucus · 2 Mar 2017 at 14:33

SC0TTRS said:
It's 6 months not 6 weeks.

Lost property
If you find goods that appear to be lost, then you can keep the goods as long as:

You did not find the goods dishonestly or while trespassing

You take care of the goods – you will be liable for any damage caused to the goods while they are in your care

You did not find the goods on your employers’ property

The goods are lost, and not uncollected or abandoned, stolen or treasure

You have taken reasonable steps to find the owner of the goods

The goods were found not attached to anything on premises or land where the occupier does not exercise much control, for example, an air terminal lounge, public part of a shop, or recreation ground.

Goods handed over to the police
The usual police practice is that the finder can have the goods back and keep them if they are not claimed within six weeks. However, the police may want more time if there are special circumstances and they want to investigate. Once the property has been returned to the finder by the police, the original owner cannot usually then claim the goods.

h4rm0ny · 2 Mar 2017 at 14:38

Orionaut said:
Denial certainly implies that she knew she had done something wrong (morally if not, in her own mind, actually criminal)

Or fear. If someone you feel threatened by (police, aggressive shop owner, whoever) demands if you know something or did something, the first instinct of many will be to clam up and say "no". Surely we all learnt that at school, no?