20K on the side of the road

[Tamas]

I would turn it in out of sheer paranoia.  When you suddenly start depositing lots of cash, or using lots of cash, it gets people suspicious you are a drug dealer or doing something else illegal.  Besides how do I know the money is not counterfeit?  Too dangerous, best to turn it in and take my chances of getting a measely $500.00 gift card.

I voted FUCK NO, but this is actually a good point.

[Eddie Teach]

Did anybody see me find it and pick it up?

[CountDeMoney]

Which law? Why is it illegal to keep money that you've found?

Because lost money is still somebody else's, particularly in a bank bag where the owner's name is printed on it.  It is not abandoned property, just lost property and that does not remove the legality of it still being their property. 
The Law of the Briny Deep does not apply.

[Malthus]

I actually got a windfall out of a bank once, many years ago when I was a broke teen.

Happened like this: I was down to my last few cents and needed cash, fast, for a cab - it was like 2 in the AM and I was drunk and stoned far from home, and on my own, having just vacated a party.

I walked and walked to find a bank machine. They weren't as common then, this was the only one for a long way, on the wall outside a bank. Some guy was ahead of me, using his card. It didn't work. The machine would not give any cash for him. He warned me not to use it, machine was fucked.

But I really, really needed some cash. So I put my card in, thinking maybe it was just his card that was fucked. The other guy stuck around, to see what would happen. I tried to take 20 bucks out.

The machine gave a strange grinding sound, and instead of the 20 bucks, a sort of chewed up wad poked out of the slot. I pulled on this, and it turned out to be a wad of bills. Both of us kept pulling on the wad and the bills kept comming. Some of them were pretty mangled, but in the end we had a few hundred dollars worth.

We just split that cash and took off. There was no question of handing it back to the bank, even though I suppose it would be pretty easy for the bank to find us - it had our card info. Nothing came of it, though. 

[CountDeMoney]

I would turn it in out of sheer paranoia.  When you suddenly start depositing lots of cash, or using lots of cash, it gets people suspicious you are a drug dealer or doing something else illegal.  Besides how do I know the money is not counterfeit?  Too dangerous, best to turn it in and take my chances of getting a measely $500.00 gift card.

Fuck it.  If I got pinched, I'd take my chances with a jury anyway, and in the meantime turn the trial into a public indictment of the modern predatory capitalist model.

And then continue to blog for my man Ed on MSNBC from my cell. 

[The Brain]

If I spot a 100 SEK bill on the ground I don't turn it in. I don't pick it up either.

[CountDeMoney]

it was like 2 in the AM and I was drunk and stoned far from home, and on my own, having just vacated a party.

http://youtu.be/zPvXXfbN54g

[Grey Fox]

I actually got a windfall out of a bank once, many years ago when I was a broke teen.

Happened like this: I was down to my last few cents and needed cash, fast, for a cab - it was like 2 in the AM and I was drunk and stoned far from home, and on my own, having just vacated a party.

I walked and walked to find a bank machine. They weren't as common then, this was the only one for a long way, on the wall outside a bank. Some guy was ahead of me, using his card. It didn't work. The machine would not give any cash for him. He warned me not to use it, machine was fucked.

But I really, really needed some cash. So I put my card in, thinking maybe it was just his card that was fucked. The other guy stuck around, to see what would happen. I tried to take 20 bucks out.

The machine gave a strange grinding sound, and instead of the 20 bucks, a sort of chewed up wad poked out of the slot. I pulled on this, and it turned out to be a wad of bills. Both of us kept pulling on the wad and the bills kept comming. Some of them were pretty mangled, but in the end we had a few hundred dollars worth.

We just split that cash and took off. There was no question of handing it back to the bank, even though I suppose it would be pretty easy for the bank to find us - it had our card info. Nothing came of it, though.

No one is watching those camera feed.

[Grey Fox]

I would keep it, I would not deposit in my bank account & I would only use it to buy groceries.

[merithyn]

Which law? Why is it illegal to keep money that you've found?

Because lost money is still somebody else's, particularly in a bank bag where the owner's name is printed on it.  It is not abandoned property, just lost property and that does not remove the legality of it still being their property. 
The Law of the Briny Deep does not apply.

Okay. Makes sense.

[Malthus]

it was like 2 in the AM and I was drunk and stoned far from home, and on my own, having just vacated a party.

http://youtu.be/zPvXXfbN54g

Hey, getting cash for a cab home disproves that theory. 

[Malthus]

No one is watching those camera feed.

I would have thought they only recorded it and would look at it if someone attempted a robbery the bank later found out about.

Sadly, in the case above, I think the real losers were probably everyone who tried to take out cash before I did. The cash got stuck somehow inside the machine. So the bank's records wouldn't show any issues - the machine readings would say all the cash requested was dispensed.

[CountDeMoney]

No one is watching those camera feed.

I would have thought they only recorded it and would look at it if someone attempted a robbery the bank later found out about.

Sadly, in the case above, I think the real losers were probably everyone who tried to take out cash before I did. The cash got stuck somehow inside the machine. So the bank's records wouldn't show any issues - the machine readings would say all the cash requested was dispensed.

Yeah, those feeds are laid down on DVRs, but they can go back for months.  But it sounds like the feeder got fubar'd, and everybody else's accounts before you showed as dispensed.  Your lucky night.

[Barrister]

I actually got a windfall out of a bank once, many years ago when I was a broke teen.

Happened like this: I was down to my last few cents and needed cash, fast, for a cab - it was like 2 in the AM and I was drunk and stoned far from home, and on my own, having just vacated a party.

I walked and walked to find a bank machine. They weren't as common then, this was the only one for a long way, on the wall outside a bank. Some guy was ahead of me, using his card. It didn't work. The machine would not give any cash for him. He warned me not to use it, machine was fucked.

But I really, really needed some cash. So I put my card in, thinking maybe it was just his card that was fucked. The other guy stuck around, to see what would happen. I tried to take 20 bucks out.

The machine gave a strange grinding sound, and instead of the 20 bucks, a sort of chewed up wad poked out of the slot. I pulled on this, and it turned out to be a wad of bills. Both of us kept pulling on the wad and the bills kept comming. Some of them were pretty mangled, but in the end we had a few hundred dollars worth.

We just split that cash and took off. There was no question of handing it back to the bank, even though I suppose it would be pretty easy for the bank to find us - it had our card info. Nothing came of it, though.

No one is watching those camera feed.

But it is being recorded, and once there is a problem they can go back and look at the recording.  I see ATM CCTV footage all the time.

[CountDeMoney]

Go get 'em, counselor!