I feel like it'd be an overwhelming response of 'turn it in' if the question was about a wallet. Wallet vs bag of cash is apples to oranges.
ETA: Also located in a populated public space vs on a road in the middle of nowhere with nobody around.
Would you turn it in?
- Thread starter cstrunk
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I feel like it'd be an overwhelming response of 'turn it in' if the question was about a wallet. Wallet vs bag of cash is apples to oranges.
ETA: Also located in a populated public space vs on a road in the middle of nowhere with nobody around.
Many banks will get told to look for certain numbers and a lead teller will check incoming for those bills during a time period. You’d be surprised how often they get spotted. Most will get spent in the thief’s general area. So the cops will track patterns and frequencies.
I don't think anybody could/should judge anybody else's opinion on this type of thing. There are so many life variables and what-ifs. While sometimes my posts come across wrong and get accused of being "high and mighty", I truly don't judge people as I can't know their life's story or situation.
For me - I always try to do the right thing and like to think I hold myself to high moral and ethical standards. But I'm also not going to pretend like I know for absolute certain how I'd react in the moment. Obviously where you find it, how it's labeled, if you think you can get away with it, etc shouldn't change your opinion of a binary right/wrong choice... but that type of thing would greatly factor into it.
Finances have always been an enormous stress for me and if the situation was right, I can't say I wouldn't keep it. $10K is huge to us, I can only imagine how many years I'd get back on my life from less stress if I had $1 million.
So my moral, ethical stand says find it's owner. But I can't pretend I wouldn't crack in the situation of what could be completely life changing for my family. Or, it could make my search start and stop by calling my wife to see if she lost $1million. If not, I guess I may have exhausted all my hard efforts
For me - I always try to do the right thing and like to think I hold myself to high moral and ethical standards. But I'm also not going to pretend like I know for absolute certain how I'd react in the moment. Obviously where you find it, how it's labeled, if you think you can get away with it, etc shouldn't change your opinion of a binary right/wrong choice... but that type of thing would greatly factor into it.
Finances have always been an enormous stress for me and if the situation was right, I can't say I wouldn't keep it. $10K is huge to us, I can only imagine how many years I'd get back on my life from less stress if I had $1 million.
So my moral, ethical stand says find it's owner. But I can't pretend I wouldn't crack in the situation of what could be completely life changing for my family. Or, it could make my search start and stop by calling my wife to see if she lost $1million. If not, I guess I may have exhausted all my hard efforts
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That I would always turn in, even if there was a load of cash in it.
Unlike a giant bag full of money with a label and barcode on it that fell off a postal truck.
So the only thing stopping you from stealing anything from anyone is fear of punishment. Good to know.
Had a hand full of responsible jobs working with other peoples money for more than 30 years. Doesn’t matter to me whether it is one penny or one million. My conscience would not let me take or keep money that was someone else’s.
Don‘t understand the argument small amount vs. large amount.
True story. Norwest Bank used to own several banks with several million dollars of deposits and was headquartered in Minneapolis Mn. Very stringent about compliance and guarding for theft etc. In the early days of computers the bank examiners found an employee that had stolen a huge sum. Their internal auditors were astounded that they missed someone embezzling such a large amount.
The method the thief devised was that every time interest was figured on an account the bank always rounded the payout down to the whole penny. The thief simply had all interest that was not a whole penny paid to his account. When this is done over virtually all accounts of several million dollars for a period of time it becomes a tidy sum indeed.
Don‘t understand the argument small amount vs. large amount.
True story. Norwest Bank used to own several banks with several million dollars of deposits and was headquartered in Minneapolis Mn. Very stringent about compliance and guarding for theft etc. In the early days of computers the bank examiners found an employee that had stolen a huge sum. Their internal auditors were astounded that they missed someone embezzling such a large amount.
The method the thief devised was that every time interest was figured on an account the bank always rounded the payout down to the whole penny. The thief simply had all interest that was not a whole penny paid to his account. When this is done over virtually all accounts of several million dollars for a period of time it becomes a tidy sum indeed.
Did you just describe the plot of Office Space to us?
In my day it was always a plot of land that people were interested in. Sorry to bother you folks with another boomer story.
Not really, you are using the home business to show a place where you got income from. Have a relative or two that you give them $600 cash and they write you a check for $500 and then deposit it.
You are not depositing the same amount each week, you are breaking it up. Go back to my mowing yards, you deposit $800 one week in a couple of banks. Make small talk about what a great week you had, then next week you deposit $250 in each bank, slow mowing week with lots of rain.
Banks only report you if you are depositing $10,000 or over, keep the deposits small always less than $800 to $1000 and do it every now and then, its not going to be a problem at all.
And Hackers and Superman 3. The urban legend of salami slicing.
The Salami Embezzlement Technique
Bank employee embezzles large sum by stealing small amounts of money from many accounts.
What you're describing is just bank fraud, structuring in this case, and is caught all the time, I suppose if you've already stolen a million dollars though you may as well just risk it. Banks are not only required to report if it's over $10k, they'll do it for anything that seems suspicious or related to criminal acts. Do you file tax returns for this fake business?
Taking your stolen money to a place that specifically trains people to be on the look out for suspicious activity related to money does not seem like a plan made for success.
I think there would be dozens of people claiming to be the rightful owner, especially since the auditor is obligated by law to publish a notice of the finding three times.
If I'm reading the Iowa code correctly, if several people claim the money, a judge decides who gets it and how much. I'm not seeing in the Code who pays the costs for publication and court costs (but I can guess).
556F.6 Lost goods or money. If any person shall find any lost goods, money, bank notes, or other things of any description whatever, of the value of five dollars and over, such person shall inform the owner thereof, if known, and make restitution thereof.
When owner unknown. If the owner is unknown, the finder shall, within five days after finding the property, take the money, bank notes, and a description of any other property to the county sheriff of the county or the chief of police of the city in which the property was found, and provide an affidavit describing the property, the time when and place where the property was found, and attesting that no alteration has been made in the appearance of the property since the finding. The sheriff or chief of police shall send a copy of the affidavit to the county auditor who shall enter a description of the property and the value of the property, as nearly as the auditor can determine it, in the auditor’s lost property book, together with the copy of the affidavit of the finder.
Advertisement. The finder of the lost goods, money, bank notes, or other things shall give written notice of the finding of the property. The notice shall contain an accurate description of the property and a statement as to the time when and place where the same was found, and the post office address of the finder. The notice shall: 1. Be posted at the door of the courthouse in the county in which the property was found or at the city hall or police station if found within a city and in one other of the most public places in the county; and 2. If the property found exceeds forty dollars in value, the notice shall be published once each week for three consecutive weeks in some newspaper published in and having general circulation in the county.
Record of publication. Proof of publication of said notice and of the posting thereof shall be made by affidavits of the publisher and the person posting said notices, and said affidavits shall be filed in the office of the county auditor of said county.
Additional publication. The affidavits provided for in section 556F.9 shall be entered by the auditor in the proceedings of the board of supervisors and the same shall be published with the proceedings of said board.
Vesting of title. If no person appears to claim and prove ownership to said goods, money, bank notes, or other things within twelve months of the date when proof of said publication and posting is filed in the office of the county auditor, the right to such property shall irrevocably vest in said finder.
Ownership settled. In any case where a claim is made to property found or taken up, and the ownership of the property cannot be agreed upon by the finder and claimant, they may make a case before any district judge, associate district judge, or judicial magistrate in the county, who may hear and adjudicate it, and if either of them refuses to make such case the other may make an affidavit of the facts which have previously occurred, and the claimant shall also verify the claim by the claimant’s affidavit, and the district judge, associate district judge, or judicial magistrate may take cognizance of and try the matter on the other party having one day’s notice, but there shall be no appeal from the decision. This section does not bar any other remedy given by law.
I didn’t read the story. I’m referencing a bag of money that no one knows who the owner is. Not something easily traceable.
If I found a wallet with $200 in it. I’m giving the wallet back. An envelope with $200 in it blowing across a field with no distinguishing features I’m probably pocketing.
No I’m saying it’s easy to tell who the owner of the car is so no I’m not taking it. Money with no identifiable feature is fair game.
I dropped $50 I had just taken out of the ATM a couple years ago and I couldn’t find it. The person who picked that up off the ground didn’t steal it from me unless they saw me drop and could have been able to give it back to me.
The money is not stolen, it's found, that is a big difference. The main difference is you are not paying income tax on it. You only hear about the people once they are caught, many never are, that is important to understand. Businesses make cash deposits every night, nothing suspicious about it. My wife used to work for our local city, when utilities came do, it was nothing to take $15,000 to $20,000 up to the bank to deposit, more than half in cash. The fake business is used to launder the money, you really think any bank is going to notice a business that is depositing $25,000 over a year and call the feds? You are still paying with cash for as much as you can.
Sure I am filing tax returns on my mowing business and taking every deduction I can get. Hell, I know people that start businesses just to write crap off and never plan to make money from it. Its not any different than a farmer or a trucker, they are writing off everything they can.
