Taking stuff that isnt yours

Prepare for multiquote fail :D

Freefaller said:
You're being a little ridiculous. My boss wouldn't reprimand me or my staff wouldn't get reprimanded for something like that,
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Once again not everyone's lives are equal and using yourself and lifestyle as a basis for comparison does not work. Perhaps you are lucky to have a boss that understands situations like this, my boss would not and I'm sure he's not alone. I too find time to go to the gym during my lunch hour, sometimes I go shopping. I have an hour to to do as I please. If I am gone for more than an hour I have to have a damn good reason and "helping a stranger" does not cut it.

Freefaller said:
furthermore you can always hand it in at another time if you work in such a harsh industry/environment.
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There is a small window of opportunity to hand something in. Once the owner realises their item is missing they will be looking for it the same day. If you only find time to hand it in the following day you will miss the window and as I said before with an example, the police are not reliable in regards to matters such as this. If you speak to the wrong person they will just apply their best slopey shoulders technique.

Freefaller said:
Even if were to take 1-2hrs (which it wouldn't) it's not exactly a lot of time..
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Once again it is all relative. I have already explained this and I don't need to repeating myself.

Freefaller said:
People SHOULD be making the effort "in this day and age" - I just don't buy the "modern lifestyle" as an excuse.
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I agree with you but what you are talking about is revolution. There are hundreds of things that people SHOULD or SHOULD NOT do in the modern world but we simply cannot just fix them all by "doing the right thing". Life is a lot more complicated than that. Cause and effect - you change one thing and then other aspects of life will need adjusting as well. We are not all robotic in nature. I once again return to the "grey area".
 
Clearly my life is a lot simpler. Though I don't have a lunchbreak lucky sod.

We clearly live very different lives, I only work 10-11hrs a day and live in London so no doubt have more time and access to be able to hand stuff in. :)

I think it's a poor excuse saying people don't have time or abdicate social and moral responsibility. This however detracts from the fact the OP thinks it's his right and acceptable to keep things that don't belong to him. I might be willing to accept people being too selfish to help others out but I can't accept that it's okay to keep other people's stuff regardless of the situation.
 
EVH said:
The fact that people feel it's ok to go routing through someone's purse/wallet looking for money is disturbing.

If I find a purse or wallet I have a look for ID or some way to contact the original owner. I'd never dream about going through looking for money, but then everyone is different as proven in this thread.

If you don't have the time or motivation to hand it in to the police, leave it alone.
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Indeed. However it appears we are in the minority!

We're doooooomed!
 
vonhelmet said:
There's special rules for finding "treasure". You may be required to turn it over the government or to the landowner. You may also be taxed on your find.

There was an article on my work Intranet a while back about it.
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Last I looked, which was years ago, "treasure" was defined as valuables hidden, as opposed to valuables lost. So a chest of coins and jewellery would be treasure, but a single coin wouldn't be. Treasure was owned by the Crown, which was better than it sounded because the custom was for them to pay the finder and the landowner anyway.
 
Slime said:
I hate to sound harsh and maybe this is a little over the top, but if this wasn't the first time that this had happened, then she shouldn't be doing the job. I took advantage of her mistake, I would't class it as thieving as she handed me the money. I didn't deceive her or take the money without her knowing.
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And? You took money that you knew was not yours. That is theft. What someone else knew is irrelevant.

If I'd have walked out of there and only realised I had the money once I'd got home, would I still be a thief?
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Technically yes, but I wouldn't think of it that way because of the small amount of money involved and the degree of inconvenience to you in returning it. Unless the shop in question was just a couple of minutes away from your home.
 
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find loose cash on the street and didn;t see who dropped it gets pocketed only because i know no one will go to the police station for a lost fiver and they will only pocket it themselves.

Find purse/phone/cash/large amount of money say 100+ and saw the person drop it gets given to them/handed in to the nearest place.
 
Freefaller said:
[..]
You're being a little ridiculous. My boss wouldn't reprimand me or my staff wouldn't get reprimanded for something like that, furthermore you can always hand it in at another time if you work in such a harsh industry/environment.
[..]
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Whoa, you really are out of touch with the norm! Your comment is boggling.

I assure you that returning an hour late from a break would normally result in a reprimand and that it would not normally be considered "such a harsh industry/environment" in which such a thing happened.
 
if its on the floor and i didnt see who dropped it i would pocket it. but stealing stuff like towels off a washing line because someone stole yours is worse. It happens with car parts, me mam had a piece of plastic stolen off her car and i had some screws stolen from my scooter so it kind of go's in a chain.
 
I found £20 in the street years ago, couldn't see anyone at all. Very long open stretch. Kept it. *Shrugs*

When I was younger I worked at my aunts taxi firm / garage. Cleaning out the montego's at the time and the minibuses would often find cash and wallets. The cash I was to keep, it was pretty much always coins. Sometimes fancy pens etc. Wallets I always handed into the office. Handed one to a bit of a **** of a controller who worked for my aunt, but he pocketed it. My aunt happened to be round seeing my mum when I got home (aged 11) and I told her. When she got in there was no wallet. :p

Sacked. lol
 
Angilion said:
Whoa, you really are out of touch with the norm! Your comment is boggling.

I assure you that returning an hour late from a break would normally result in a reprimand and that it would not normally be considered "such a harsh industry/environment" in which such a thing happened.
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Erm no I work for a big FTSE100 company I'm very much in touch, furthermore I'm relatively senior - just because your experiences are different doesn't mean that it's the norm either old bean ;)

Sure different companies have different policies, but exceptional circumstances often lead to deal with the case each at a time.

Anyway, if you have no intention of handing it why pick it up in the first place - if you're not going to do the right thing, don't become the lowest denominator.
 
I found an ipod on the tube once. i was fine keeping it. Also things like oyster cards and cash, no way of finding owners so i have no troubles keeping them.

Phones ive found i return, likewise things that i can easily find the owner, like a wallet.
 
Angilion said:
Whoa, you really are out of touch with the norm! Your comment is boggling.

I assure you that returning an hour late from a break would normally result in a reprimand and that it would not normally be considered "such a harsh industry/environment" in which such a thing happened.
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I agree. The only people I know who could get away with this include my manager, his manager etc. and one of my mates who is a carpenter and works for himself.

The majority of people who work in offices, shops and restaurants and answer to a team leader would definitely be reprimanded. Only the more senior members of staff can come and go as they please and I seriously doubt that they out number the generic office drones, thus you are correct.
 
Efour2 said:
Ive left my wallet on a bus before and to my surprise £50 was still in it when i collected it from the depot.

.
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I always hand in lost property i find on my coach, Perisables get thrown out in 24hrs if not claimed by the depot, Everything else gets given to me if not claimed in 3 month. Loose change when I sweep up is mine for the coffee machine:).

OT people really should be more carefull with there property, The amount of stuff I find is unbelieveable.
 
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Guest2 said:
Thats a fair point, but my feeling would be that someone else would only find it and keep it instead. Maybe I just have a duller view on human nature than people on here, or have grown up around people who would keep what they find
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I do not have control over what other people do in their lives, I only have control over what I do in my life. Why does it matter what others would or would not do?
 
gambitt said:
I agree. The only people I know who could get away with this include my manager, his manager etc. and one of my mates who is a carpenter and works for himself.

The majority of people who work in offices, shops and restaurants and answer to a team leader would definitely be reprimanded. Only the more senior members of staff can come and go as they please and I seriously doubt that they out number the generic office drones, thus you are correct.
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I can honestly say that if one of my managers phoned me saying he's got to pop to the police station, I really wouldn't mind, I have other managers that can cover, and even then it's not exactly a regular occurrence, besides they more often than not work long hours and do a good job - a bit of flexibility is never going to kill you, and for the sake of doing the right thing I wouldn't mind at all - I know my managers and staff well so I know there wouldn't be any funny business. Furthermore, should I be in a situation like this and I were to speak to my boss, unless I had a meeting or something important to attend he honestly wouldn't mind. I'm on a salary, I work long hours and work hard - but that's besides the point - we're talking about something which is seldom ever going to happen.

Also this is steering way off track - we're not analysing management skills or flexibility but whether or not people would keep lost items for themselves.

If you don't want to deal with it, then leave it and move on. I, for one, cannot let something like that go - I feel compelled to do the right thing - sorry that it seems so alien to so many of you, but there you go - I'm what's called a decent human being, and don't put myself first all the time. :)
 
Once again you are using yourself and yourself only as a basis for comparison. I prefer to think of the population in general.

Do you apply your "doing the right thing" model to every aspect in life or just lost property? Some examples:

  • Helping an old lady cross the street or walk to the bank (brought up in a thread created recently)
  • Helping every motorist whose vehicle has broken down
  • Picking up every piece of litter you walk past
  • Volunteer work

Most people consider all of these "right things to do" but if they did all of them there wouldn't be enough time to complete a 10 hour working day, go to the gym etc. I conclude that you put a much higher value on material goods if you do not also do the good deeds listed above. :)
 
Of course I'm going to use me as an example - I know me, the best! ;)

Funnily enough i do most of those things most of the time. I'm happy to admit there are times when I don't have time - but I endeavour to do the right thing. I won't necessarily go out of my way to help a mother and her buggy if I'm sat in a restaurant having dinner - however if I'm on the train, or the tube, I always offer to carry someone's bag or help them with their buggy yes.

I get your point, however, it's not about doing all those other things and putting yourself out, picking up an item off the floor and handing it in isn't exactly anything quite as taxing as what you have mentioned.

Furthermore, it's detracting from the fact that the OP seems to think it's ok to keep it - which is unacceptable, or do you think that's also "tough luck"?

I think we're just going to have to agree to disagree - I just hope that my good deeds help make the world a little better, and that people become less selfish. :)
 
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