Debate going on between the GF and I. This weekend she was in a movie theater and accidently left her cell phone (she forgot it, it fell off...something). Anyway, someone obviously found it and didn't return it. She insists on saying someone "stole" her phone, as they should have done the morally correct thing and returned it. So if someone finds something you left (assume it has some value) and it's not returned, is that like "stealing"?
Yes. Always turn it in to lost and found or Karma's going to come back and bite you in the ass twice as hard.
I tend to think that if it's an object, like a celle phone, wallet, or a jacket or something, you turn it in to lost and found. If somebody dropped a wad of cash, you keep it.
In this case, yes. Because it would be easy to find the original owner - just call someone on the list. There are other things where finding the original owner is so difficult to do and hard to establish that it's finder's keepers (like loose money).
Ok, but is it technically stealing? I know it's not right to keep stuff, but can you get in trouble for it?
Ask yourself this. If you found a car in a parking lot with the keys in it and you take it and don't return it, is it stealing? What would the cops say?
Legally I can't say, but if it's reported missing and someone finds it, yes it's stealing. Otherwise, no it's not stealing, but it is morally bad. Last year I found 400 Euro dollars on the ground (about $650 American at the time). I felt bad and turned it into the lost and found. I didn't know what happened to it until 5 months later which kind of pissed me off since I was told that if no one claimed it, I would receive it. I wasn't pissed about not getting the money, but rather the fact that no one knew what happened to it. My friends kept on giving me a hard time about turning it in (evening some of my family members), and then when it "disappeared" everyone tried to convince me that the people working the desk stole it from the lost and found. I finally found out that the person who lost it correctly identified the amount and got it back, but I was (and still am to an extent) angered at how it was handled, espeically not even getting a thank you from anyone. Fast forward to a few months ago when I found a cell phone on the street. Obviously someone was careless, and there was no one around to where it could have been dropped within the past few mintues (it had probably been dropped within the half hour as someone was getting into a car). Well I took it and was going to give it to the lost and found when one of my friends noticed it was a phone with the same service as what I had with my ****ty phone. I decided to use it and then when I showed it to the same people who tried to convince me to keep the money, they thought it was horrible. Granted it was someone's cell phone, but monetarilly it was worth far less than the cash. So I couldn't figure that one out; I ended up giving it to the front desk. From that I at least now have my contacts backed up on my computer in case I do ever misplace my phone.
I NEVER turn anything into lost and found. If i cant find the owner, then i'll either keep it or leave it (general rule, if its not yours, don't touch it)
Money - like you said, hard to trace. (I wouldn't just keep a really large amount, though. Small bills are finders keepers.) Other things, at least objects of value - either leave them alone or attempt to reunite them with their owners. A phone would definitely fall into this category. The only exceptions are for small objects that no one's going to come back for. (pens are the best example - by the way, if you go to a large school like UT and need to increase your pen or pencil stash, just go through some of the large classrooms at the end of the day) Otherwise... then what isn't stealing? (oh, they left their truck sitting right out in the parking lot, and the truck was locked but if I pried the back window open with a knife I was able to slide it and get inside. And once I cracked the steering column, I managed to get it hot-wired. So, finders keepers. If that truck was so important to them, they shouldn't have left it out like that.)
In your case it was stealing because it is a traceable item. If there is no way to determine who it belongs to, and nowhere to turn it in... it may be just "finding." But then, you could always post a sign with a free email address or something at the sight of the "find." I'm sure if it was reported and then found by police, you could press charges in any of these situations, unless of course there had been NO way to find the original owner. Someone "found" the face plate to my car stereo recently. Right in my driveway.
I'd feel the same way, but doing the right thing isn't always a thankful job. It's not like some videogame where you get rewarded for every good thing you do....
When I worked at Kroger, I found $200 on the ground and turned it into the courtesy booth. Sure enough, someone claimed it, no material reward outside of a "thanks" though. A separate occassion, I found a purse in shopping cart and turned it in. Funny thing about that, the woman who claimed it actually accused me of stealing contents (what kind of sense does that make anyway? I'm going to steal something from a purse, but turn it in?). That being said, the reward you get is not material. All those little "whew that was close" moments, and instances where others help you out of the kindness of their hearts are the payoff.
Why does everyone feel there ought to be a reward for every good deed they do? We all need to quit being so selfish and do it because it's right and others will appreciate it. It shouldn't all be about "what's in it for me".
I believe if you found something that's not yours, you should do everything in your power to return it to it's owner. But if you did your best, but still couldn't return it, then you gets to keep it. In your case, whoever found it could easily find out who the owner is and return it. But he/she still decides to keep it, so I consider it stealing.
