What would you do? Goodwill employee finds $10 000 in cash in unmarked envelope.

What would you do in this situation? You're at work, shopping, or just some random place, and you come across an unmarked envelope containing ten thousand dollars in cash?

abcnews.go.com...

Goodwill employee Lakeisha Williams was sorting through some donated books at a Stockton, Calif., collection site when she noticed an unexpected donation.

“There was an envelope full of cash,” Williams told ABC News’ Sacramento affiliate KXTV.

The envelope had $10,500 in it in $100 bills. Williams joked that she briefly thought about pocketing the cash but knew she had to do the right thing.

So far, nobody has claimed the money, and there is the possibility Lakeisha Williams will received some sort of financial recompense.

“If nothing happens at that point … and all indicators are that nobody is claiming the money, at that point in time we put it into our normal donation stream revenue for our agency,” Miller said. “We have a policy to reward our employees for their honesty and integrity. …”

The amount of money rewarded to the employee is up to Miller, but he said it would likely be in the range of 10 percent in this instance. This means Williams could be about $1,000 richer if no one comes forward to claim the missing money in the next three months.

I have found a wallet, with money in it, in the past, and I returned it to its rightful owner. I'd like to believe I would give the envelope to my employer, or the police, but honestly, I don't know - until I am put in this position, it's difficult to know. Something similar happened in Melbourne, and it turns out the money was being kept for an operation.

If there was no possibility of being caught, I'm curious how many people would keep the money, and how many would return it?

What would you do?

I'd like to believe I would return the money. At present, to be perfectly honest I would keep it. I'm in a bit of a dire strait financially and this would be like winning the lottery. Does that make me a bad person? I don't think so.

I would have gone to a tall building roof in a busy area.

Then throw the whole wad into the wind !!!



But I would have called the local TV stations first.

Wow, good on her for doing the right thing. I don't think I could take it either, I'm sure there are people worse off than me that need the money more than I do. I'd feel guilty for pocketing it.

If there is no way to identify who the money belongs to I am keeping it.

I've found wallets with cash and returned them to the owner. I even once found a bag in a cab with about $300 worth of merchandise in it. The only identifier was the receipt so I took it back to the store to see if the store could reverse look up the owner.

However, in a situation where there is no possible way to identify who the money belongs to I'm just going to consider it my lucky day.

I found a wad of $20s once and turned it in to the police. They said someone claimed it. I thought long and hard about keeping it, but in the end, my mind kept telling me it could be some retiree living in my complex who had cashed in their part-time check and dropped the money and what if?

I just couldn't keep it.

Hopefully, this would feel even worse to think about keeping and I would do the right thing here too.

True story.

When I was about 13 or 14 years old, I found a $100 bill on the street in my neighborhood. Just the bill. No possible way for me to know who the money belonged to so I kept it.

A few days later, one of my friends comes over to kick it. His parents were typical low class ghetto hoodrats. Anyway, he goes on to tell me his Dad beat the snot out of him because he lost $100. At this point, I am like WTF. I didn't tell him I found the money as it was already blown on a few Atari video games. I always felt bad about it, but not really sure what I could have done about it at that point.

If not claimed she should be donated it for honesty. After all it's a charity right and employees there aren't exactly wealthy.

The money was abandoned, with no ownership attached to it. If I had the good fortune to come upon it, I would "do the right thing" and keep it.

It would be rude to refuse such a generous gift, and I am under no illusion that I have some implicit moral obligation to whoever or whatever to servilely deprive myself of such good fortune, just because "its the right thing to do".

Find a wallet, return to said person.
find a unmarked envelope in donations with (clearly drug) money..gonna go with divine intervention and not make a fuss


Add: That is under the understanding it was like randomly found. if the envelope was simply left as a anonymous donation, then that money is spoken for already..probably...its most likely a sting operation if you are met with something like that

I was at the corner store a few months ago and had just paid for a soda and was putting my change back in my wallet when I noticed a twenty dollar bill lying at my feet. There were four other people standing in line, and before I had a chance to react the clerk told me I had dropped the bill.

I checked my change and wasn't missing any bills, so I stood there for a moment in shocked silence, unsure of proper protocol.

When I finally came around, I looked to everyone in line and inquired if anyone had dropped it, because I didn't appear to be missing anything from my wallet. To my honest surprise, no one in line laid claim to the bill either! Everyone just smiled and the clerk kindly quipped "looks like it's your lucky day!"

Still slightly stunned about what was happening I asked everyone in line if they were sure and they all just smiled and told me to enjoy the small blessing. I really appreciated that little kindness from the universe because I'm pretty much dead broke most of the month. I picked the bill up gingerly and graciously thanked whatever caused that little fortune to behalf me.

Now if it was a significantly larger amount? I suppose I would go into minor mental meltdown trying to understand whether or not the money was another blessing from unknown sources or if I was undergoing some sort of elaborate morality/ethics test...because I could sure could use the money for food and rent...maybe a matinee at the cinema or something.

I'd definitely keep the money out of sight while trying to parse what was happening, and...well...I'm kind of notorious over-analyzing things from every possible perspective as it stands so - in all fairness- if the rightful owner hasn't returned for their lost property by the time I've figured out what the heck I was going to do....it's surely a sign from above to keep the money.

a reply to: cuckooold

Another awesome person in society - Good job for returning the money!

I'd return it - Way back when I was a teen, I found $120 in the street outside my local library, and turned it in. After waiting for 6 months (even though the police initially told me to wait 3 months), I got the money back. I did, however donate half of it to a charity, as it fell into my "finders policy" (if I find or win $100 or more, I donate half).

-fossilera

Who knows, maybe she found 20 000$ and claimed it was 10 000$


I would've not kept it, unfortunately my conscience wouldn't let me and for the fact that I believe karma can be a hell of a bit$h.

a reply to: cuckooold

My sisters wallet fell out of her purse while she was in NYC a few years ago, some guy mailed it back to her in Canada, with a letter that said something about taking 20 dollars because it looked cool. And to pay for the postage.

But if I found a random envelope full of cash, I'd most likely stick around the area I found it for a bit, if no-one realizes that 10 grand is missing then, it's all mine!
But in this situation she found it at work, I'd be a little hesitant to take the money for myself. I'd keep it around for a while then decide it's fate.

a reply to: cuckooold

If no one else knew about it, I would take it home, use it discreetly and never tell anyone.

I would return it, if no one claimed it I would donate it. For that matter I'll even speak up if a cashier gives me back too much change.

Reverse the situation, lets say you lose a large sum of money somehow. Wouldn't you want others to return it to you? Use your actions to set the example for others.

I found £50 a few years back. I went straight to the Supermarket and bought a bottle of Jack and a crate of Lager to celebrate my good fortune.

originally posted by: xuenchen
I would have gone to a tall building roof in a busy area.

Then throw the whole wad into the wind !!!

But I would have called the local TV stations first.

I have thought of this.. But the end story results in jail for causing a riot or some crap...

I returned a wallet to a guy, I had no right to his money, he asked what I wanted and I said if you ever find one hand it in, it might be mine!

Saw a woman drop hers only last week and picked it up and returned it to her.

But I don't know about an unmarked envelope in a donated book, it's much less personal.

Hopefully I will be able to let you know soon!

I would pocket the $$... fate did not select Goodwill to get the old books donation with the money hidden in a book, I feel assured that fate had me find the stash-of-cash as I would put the windfall to good use...
well better than Goodwill...

but I may be biased against Goodwill because my significant-other of 45 years was canned by the org. because she declined to provide a Doctor's excuse for 5 sequential days of ill health which was daily called in so that there would be little disruption of daily operations because of her absence.

Goodwill's are primarily For-Profit stores, they are not Charities... the same themes like meglo-mania haunt the hierarchy of these independent fiefdoms as it does in many other franchises throughout our economy...
the chase for power, pay & bonuses is rife but only on the management divide side of the staff/employees