"It's MY Money!" He said-She said

[LillFilly]

This happened to my coworker this afternoon.

A Gentleman turned-in a lady's wallet that he found on a bench. Coworker logged it into our lost & found database.

15-min later the Owner came looking for her wallet and coworker returned it to her.

One problem.

The Owner claimed that she had had $300 IN THE WALLET! Coworker told her that it was another customer who turned it in and there was no money present when coworker took control of it. Owner demanded the police be called. The police arrived and questioned the Gentleman. As it turned out, the Gentleman had 300$ on his person too; but there's no way to prove that it's the Lady's money. The Gentleman pointed-out to her that if he had taken the money, why would he make himself a suspect by bringing the wallet to security? (Usually, it seems people pocket the money and throw the wallet in the trash in the bathroom. We find a good number of empty wallets there) He makes a good point, and unfortunately there are no cameras showing that area, so without a witness or footage there's nothing we or the police can do. Kind of a tough situation for that lady, assuming there was even $ in there to begin with. I hope she doesn't figure that, if she can't get $ from the Gentleman, that she'll try to pin it on us and collect that way.

Funny, we get a surprising number of wallets turned-in with the cash intact; I'd say more than half.

[eltf177]

Boy, this is a real Solomon moment. On the one hand if he did steal the money turning in the wallet doesn't make a lot of sense. On the other hand she can't prove there was any money in the wallet in the first place. And I can't see much the police can do in this case.

She's just going to have to be grateful the wallet was returned, money or no money.

FTIW I once found a wallet with money and turned it into mall security. I wonder if the wallet and money ever made their way back to the rightful owner...

[LillFilly]

We usually try to have at least a witness when we handle a large amount of found money, and valuables go right into a safe until an owner shows-up or 90 days pass. Once, I found a purse with a bank envelope with almost 2,000$ dollars! The owners came to pick it up the next day, thank goodness!

[emt_cookies]

300 is kind of a weird number for 2 people to be carrying.

[wagegoth]

300 is kind of a weird number for 2 people to be carrying.

It used to be the default maximum amount for ATMs, so it could be habit.


This is why I don't carry much cash. I'm uncomfortable with more than $100 on me; I prefer to keep it under $60.

[gremcint]

I try to avoid carrying cash. In fact whenever I take cash out I count it as already spent for my budget, the change accumulates and then I can treat myself or something later.

[blas]

I carry a little more cash than I used to, because of what happened with the debit card theft, so I usually will have anywhere from $10-$40 on me at once, but that's only because now I absolutely refuse to use my debit card anywhere that I can't use it myself at a register or I can't see the person I hand it to using it.

I don't use ATMs anymore, unless it's the only option. I can almost always avoid that by just getting cash back at a gas station or Wal-Mart.

[AriGriffin]

I would have insisted on testing the money for fingerprints.

[PepperElf]

thing is... it's money. goodness knows how many prints are on it to begin with.

[Argabarga]

thing is... it's money. goodness knows how many prints are on it to begin with.

Exactly, nothing conclusive could be proven. Big waste of time all around.

Just be happy you got your wallet back, sans cash, and get on with life and hopefully learn your lesson about carrying wads of cash around and why it might not be a good idea

[Mytical]

Sorry, the title brings to mind a commercial. "It's my money..and I need it now!" (JG Wentworth). Ok..back to your regularly scheduled thread.

[Android Kaeli]

Since I started my second job at The Warehouse last month, it suprises me just how many people use cash and how much cash they're carrying on them. Seriously folks, please stop caring around $700 in cash on your body -- that scares the crap out of me.

[ReverendBSB]

If the warehouse you're talking about is Sams then I was one of those cash people. But only because Sams does not take all credit or debit cards. So I would pull out the cash I need beforehand and deposit back anything I did not use.

[tollbaby]

300 is kind of a weird number for 2 people to be carrying.

There's nothing in the OP's post saying that the gentleman ONLY had $300 on him, simply that he happened to have $300. He might have had $600, but nobody would care about the extra because it's not important to the story

[Android Kaeli]

If the warehouse you're talking about is Sams then I was one of those cash people. But only because Sams does not take all credit or debit cards. So I would pull out the cash I need beforehand and deposit back anything I did not use.

It may or may not be, but the thing is -- this place DOES take credit/debit cards as well as checks. Unless it changed in the last week since I went shopping there.