Be Excellent To Each Other

I found 60 quid on the petrol station forecourt this morning, I did consider handing it in behind the counter but frankly I don't trust the staff not to go and spend it on heroin and whores+ their car wash is permanently broken and they are generally rude and slow at serving.

I did think about pocketing it but that isn't a nice thing to do if some old lady had dropped it. So I took it down the police station to hand it in.

Stupidly I assumed once it was handed in, that was it done and dusted. But no, I was given it back in an envelope and if they don't contact me within a month then its mine.

So at the end of this MaliA style diversion, I have come to the conclusion that I could have had the money immediately and felt bad, or if I wait a month I can feel good. I can also feel good if the money is claimed.

Basically if I do get the money I won't go to hell.

1,3 and 4 could be counted as theft. So, 2.

Huh! I didn't know that about finded money. It wouldn't occur to me to ask the police if I lost some, either. But yes, 2.

I guess that to have a really clear conscience you should tell the petrol station attendant that you found the money and that it's with the police - that way if the chav drug dealer little old lady comes back to ask if it's been found, she has a chance of getting it.

I probably would have done the same hut didn't realise they give it back straight away.

Saying that, if I LOST 60 quid, I probably wouldn't go to the police so I reckon that money is yours.

I think you did the right thing. I would have either handed it into the petrol station or into the police station as well.

I was going through a self checkout in Sainsbury's recently and paid for my purchases but as I went to leave I felt that it was a couple of pound less than I had expected so I checked the reciept. Turned out one of my items hadn't scanned properly. I was overwhelmed with guilt and so was about to scan and pay for it when I suddenly though how odd I would look taking shopping out of my bag and beeping it. So I ended up going up to the person manning the self checkout tills to tell her what had happened before I re-purchased it so she didn't think I was scamming them somehow with my weird behavour. That made me feel even dafter so by the time I left the shop having comitted no crime and actually having demonstrated some honesty I felt daft, a bit suspicious and slightly guilty. Weird.

I had something similar happen a few weeks back, but it wasn't self service. The lady scanning obviously didn't scan my razor blades properly as when I got home they were not on the receipt. However staff incompetence isn't stealing.

Probably happens all the time but most supermarket stuff isn't as expensive as razor blades so you don't notice.

I find those self service tills to be really variable about whether you leave feeling happy, efficient and trusted, or flustered, incompetent, angry and suspicious.
It really is a bit of a lottery.

They gave me the choice of them keeping it or me keeping it. It didn't occur to me at the time but the desk sergeant was implying I would have to come back and get it in a month anyway.

I almost went to the wrong building as well. A TV show was set in town and they used another building as the police station. Guess where I was heading to? The desk sergeant gave a weary "I've heard that a hundred times" smile when I recounted this to her.

It's true, i won £82 million on one last week.

I would inform the staff and then take it to the police. That way if a person asks if it was found they would know where to find it.

When I was younger I found a wallet on the floor outside Spar. I was with a mate, and when we looked in the wallet we discovered it had around £600 in it.

My mate wanted to pocket the cash, but even at 7 years old my moral compass was good enough to hand it in at the Spar.

The following day the owner of the wallet came round to my parents' house (I'd left my details at the Spar) and rewarded me with £5.

I felt good, although there was admittedly a pang of "£5? Out of £600? You tight-fisted bastard."

Pro tip: hand it in to the police, nobody ever thinks to ask there

MaliFeeX

That reminds me, someone said there's a thing where you can "teleport" dosh via police stations - say if you get totally stuck for cash somewhere, if you phone a friend and they give the police money at their end, the police station you're at will hand it over.

Sounds faintly plausible, and like something that might have existed in the 1950s, but can you still do it? I have some money I need laundered, see.

I only use them if I'm buying 2 or 3 things, otherwise I'll happily queue safe in the knowledge that I won't get stressed out by that electronic [female dog] shouting [urine] every 2 seconds.

"Unexpected item in the bagging area."
"HOW? I'VE JUST SCANNED THE [procreating] THING YOU HATEFUL [vulva]!"
*Lifts loaf of bread out of bag & then sticks it back down, the machine says nothing*

*Sticks a tenner into the machine*
"Insert cash or select a payment type."
"WTF? ARE YOU TRYING TO ANNOY ME?"

Ooster you've just broke this thread on the college computer. The swear filter seems to have missed your use of 'i got 99 problems but the _____ ain't one'

I have a "don't ever use the robot tills" policy.

Also, found money is basically fair game in my opinion. I've lost money before, and I've found money. That's how the universe works. I'd have a look around see if there is anyone whom it might belong to about, but otherwise I'd keep any found money for sure.

@Gill: Oops

No, the worst places for these automated self service tills are DIY stores as there's a strong chance there will only be one person actually manning a checkout and there will be three people buying enough materials to build their own house in that queue. Cue you standing there waiting for some drongo to come over and allow you to purchase some solvent based material.

Is it too late to edit the post now or is that it blacklisted?

Weirdly it's letting me in the thread now but not letting me post. It's not letting me post in bits n bobs now either. It is stupid.

Done

It's just deleting that's blacklisted.

I can post now, cheers. I think he meant blacklisted from the college you tube.

I'd pocket the money. If someone tracked me down from the CCTV I'd give them it back. They earned it.

Your college has its own youtube?!

You tube.

You could be done for theft for choosing 1, 3, or 4 as you've appropriated property belonging to another, with the intention to permanently deprive (or treated it as yours to dispose of).

The only missing element is that of dishonesty. In taking the money, are you genuinely believing you have a legal right to it, that the real owner cannot be found, keeping the money is not regarded as dishonest by the standards of ordinary people or you believe that keeping the money is in accordance with ordinary, decent people? Any one of these OK, anything else isn't. So, theft.

I'd probably do the same as you Chinny, to be honest.

No point handing it in to the staff in a shop. I know in my experience as a retail manager, the last thing you want is money in the place where it's not supposed to be. If someone had handed in the dosh to me as a retail manager, I'd have just taken it straight down to the police station myself.

Trufax:
Someone once dropped a wallet in the branch of GS I ran. I took it into the back office and had a quick flick through to see if there was any ID in there so I could call the owner. Inside was a photograph driving licence, a £5 note and a peculiar clear plastic bag containing some white powder. So I put everything back and took it straight down to the local police station. The woman at the desk went through the wallet looking for ID whilst I was there and found the same plastic bag, at which point she smiled, thanked me for handing it in and sent me on my way.

No idea what happened after that and it was probably quite a mean thing to do, but it still makes me smile.

Miss Malabar mis-scanned a £30 item in Ikea, and left me with the trolley while she went into the market shop to buy those stupid strawberry lace sweets. Standing there oblivious of her mistake, I got caught by the random checks the security do. No chastising, of course, but I was taken to the front of a manned till to pay for the item I'd managed to accidentally steal.

Oh, the other day, I bought some food at Euston station, a sandwich, some sort of cakie thing, and a drink.

The guy put it all in a bag (not in my line of sight), and charged me for everything.

I ran to catch my train, and the cakie think was not in the bag.

Next time I am in London, I am going to kick off.

I bet that cost you the best part of £60 too.

I used to do that job. Fucking awesome job it was, too.

Don't kick off, just wander into the place and take a cake next time you're there. That'll make it equal.

They are behind a counter, and I don't think I could reach them. Otherwise I totally would.



The job of selling stuff in a train station, or ripping people off by hiding their cakes?

I bought an Acer Aspire One from Tesco when they first came out. After I'd paid for it, the till supervisor took the display box and went to the back room to get the real box, and five minutes later came back with a different laptop. The laptop she was giving me was quite significantly superior in specification to the netbook I'd actually wanted.

What would you have done in this situation?

Depends. The assistant could lose their job if their mistake was discovered later.
So, was she nice?

Just kidding, you'd have to point it out wouldn't you?

Have you posted about this before Gazchap? I seem to remember it.. anyway, I would have kept the good one.

I think I'd take the laptop. I mean, it would be entirely possible for you to have not noticed right?

Ooh, I have a good one.

When I was about 14/15, my parents wanted a new telly + hifi and DVD player and VCR. I did a bit of research, and in their budget the best deal was surprisingly from Argos. They had a bundle with everything in it for around £700, and it was £800 or more everywhere else.

So they ordered it, we were told it would be there within 28 days. Payment was taken immediately.

28 days came and went, so my Mum phoned them up

Argos said "Sorry, we did send it, but the delivery truck was involved in an accident. You'll have it within a week".

Two weeks later it still didn't arrive. My Mum phoned them again.

Argos said "Sorry, we did send it, but the delivery truck was involved in an accident. You'll have it within a week".

Sick of waiting, my mum said that she would go and collect it from the (not that far away) warehouse. She collected it all, and signed for it and came home with it.

A few weeks later, a deliveryman turned up with a second set of everything, we tried to send him away (saying "we don't want it", not "we already have it"), but because he was just subcontracted, he didn't care, he said we could sort it out with Argos, but he couldn't finish till he gave them too us. We left everything sealed in boxes in the spare set for 3 months, then I got a badass TV in my room, my sister got a DVD player/Hifi/VCR for her room.

I once bought a £200 bike in Halfords a few years ago. They had some interest-free credit offer thing on it, so I decided to get it on that.

It was getting a bit late as I'd gone in to buy it after work one night, and the sales assistant couldn't get the credit agreement to go through the till properly. In the end, they asked if I could go back in the morning and speak to a manager.

I did just that. The manager also seemed to be having troubles getting the credit agreement to go through and seemed to be getting more embarassed and flustered as time went by. In the end, he just told me to take the bike and assured me he'd sort everything else out later, considering I'd already signed all the paperwork and had passed the credit check.

That was about 6 years ago. They're yet to take a single payment for it.

Yeah, I've posted about it before, and yes I pointed it out (despite Shin's protestations)

FUCK THA POLICE. I'd pocket it if there were no cameras, hand it in if there were. I can't be arsed dealing with the police and their shitty bureaucracy. (That's why I'd make sure there were no cameras, BAHAHAHHA!!!)

I'd pocket it, whether there were cameras or not - my own philosophy being that if I lost sixty quid, I might do a cursory backtrack for it, but I'd never expect to get it back again. I'd simply kick myself and try not to be such an arse in future.

However, if it had been a wallet containing sixty quid I'd have handed it in, cash and all - it becomes significantly more difficult to steal when a mugshot of the owner is staring back at me.

Selling stuff to travellers. I used to make those cakes as well. Baking cakes for the day at 0615 with stonking hangover never got old.

In retrospect, it was one of my most favorite jobs. At the time, it was shit, but, hey ho that is life. Seriously interesting people I met, there.

When we were in New York last year we were in a shop buying several items of clothing (pyjama bottoms, gloves, a belt, a Yankees hoodie and ancouple of other bits) and a bottle of soda. We got through the till and the woman serving was quite rude (quite a shocker being in New York and all). I noticed she'd charged us twice for the bottle of soda, I mentioned it and she said we'd have to go to customer services to get a refund. As she'd been so off with us I thought "fine, I'm not letting you get away with this!" and started to queue. I looked at the receipt and noticed she'd not charged for the Yankees hoodie so just said to Matt "oh I can't be bothered to wait!" and walked out.

We got to the door and the alarm went off. The security guard looked in our bag and there was a security tag on the belt. He checked the receipt, saw we'd paid for it, removed the tag and let us go.

Rollercoaster of emotions in just a few minutes. But a free Yankees hoodie!

My gf found £300 near a petrol station while she was cycling about. Handed it in to the police *and the bloke came and claimed it only a couple of days later*. Promised her some flowers, too, though she never even got those.

I'd keep the money. And the laptop.

Yeah, I would too. I'm so not above profiting from others' stupidity.