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Virginia Family Finds Nearly 1 Million Dollars In The Road!

What would you do?

  • Total voters
    31
  • Poll closed .
Midman03 said:
This got me thinking, besides being worried about who's gonna be looking for the money, is it actually "illegal" to keep found money? If I found a $20 bill on the ground and kept it, is that illegal? Also, how would you go about reporting this to the IRS on taxes? That would be a conversation I would love to hear.

edit: @OGputtnfool you posted that as I was typing. Interesting article.
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Not that I'm going to take the time and search this, but there are laws on the books in the US (can't tell yo state specific) which criminalize the theft of lost, mislaid or misdelivered property. You are required to take reasonable steps to determine the rightful owner.

The only exception would be if the property is abandoned. But no one would ever abandon 1million dollars.
 
Worth noting, I do remember reading something a while ago about treasure hunters who found treasure, reported it, and the government took it all.
 
Bernoulli said:
Not that I'm going to take the time and search this, but there are laws on the books in the US (can't tell yo state specific) which criminalize the theft of lost, mislaid or misdelivered property. You are required to take reasonable steps to determine the rightful owner.

The only exception would be if the property is abandoned. But no one would ever abandon 1million dollars.
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Yeah, the reasonable steps thing is the catch... and the gray area of how much constitutes enough for gov't to prosecute. I still say to notify the police that money was found in their jurisdiction. Have them refer possible claimants either to you or your attorney. Make them specify how much money and/or describe the bag or whatever it was in. If they can't, then it's not theirs.
 
Midman03 said:
Worth noting, I do remember reading something a while ago about treasure hunters who found treasure, reported it, and the government took it all.
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Of course they're gonna keep it if you give it to them up front.
 
I clicked other for some reason but I am definitely reporting this. If the money was legitimately someone else's I wouldn't want them losing their money. More likely it would be a criminals and I wouldn't want them coming after me. Lastly I wouldn't want to make myself a criminal.
 
Sure, it would be tempting to keep some or all of it, but I just couldn't live with myself if I did.
I would take it to the police station.
 
The cartel would figure it out in the end.
 
Before reading the article @OGputtnfool posted I was thinking I would call and speak to an Attorney. After reading I know I would call.
 
Raiderboost said:
Before reading the article @OGputtnfool posted I was thinking I would call and speak to an Attorney. After reading I know I would call.
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For this amount, yeah, but at what point do you A) even worry about finding the owner and B) worry about involving police, attorneys, etc.?
 
OGputtnfool said:
For this amount, yeah, but at what point do you A) even worry about finding the owner and B) worry about involving police, attorneys, etc.?
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I think it would depend on the packaging. If it has the paper wrapper from the bank or something like that I would go to the police. Now anything over about $50,000 I'm calling the attorney. Now if it's saran wrapped like drug money and is a few thousand and is in the middle of the road I might just take it and head to the nearest golf store:ROFLMAO:.
 
Do you get to keep it over here if it isn’t claimed? Guilt would have me turn it in unfortunately.
 
normally a legal beagle down to the tee... but this one forces my hand on the other side... I think it definitely depends on the bills and bag way its found.

Definitely a case of having some "stolen" because it was in the car, however that leads to the fact you have the money and turned it in. People will know if its less than stated it was you.
 
If I had a nickel for every time I found a million dollars in the street, I’d have the same number of nickels as I do today.
 
Seems smart to report that kinda cash.....unless you wanna end up on a hit list.
 
I am calling the police. With that much money, whoever lost it is going to find it eventually. Very few entities are going to have that type of cash. 2 that come to mind are the government and drug traffickers. government always gets its money out of people, and the cartel if they don't get their money someone is still going to pay.
 
Oh man I'd say bring a whole bunch to the track or something, then cash out for fresh Bill's, and turn in the rest saying the case was hit open on the road and the 100k or whatever must have been blowing down the road
 
OGputtnfool said:
I know I post some extremes once in a while, but this is like comparing apples to plankton. Cars are usually registered to someone. I'm not sure I've ever heard of a $20 bill being registered to someone.

Are you implying that you'd turn the money over to "authorities" no matter the amount? Even $20?
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A couple of hundred dollars I would probably keep. $1M is totally different.
 
Raiderboost said:
I think it would depend on the packaging. If it has the paper wrapper from the bank or something like that I would go to the police. Now anything over about $50,000 I'm calling the attorney. Now if it's saran wrapped like drug money and is a few thousand and is in the middle of the road I might just take it and head to the nearest golf store:ROFLMAO:.
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If it has the paper wrapping from the bank, why not just take it to the bank? That seems like a no-brainer to me. If there's any identifying information in the bag/wallet/etc., then just take it to the owner.

I think the shenanigans start when there's a bag found with money in it with no identifying information.
 
Chef23 said:
A couple of hundred dollars I would probably keep. $1M is totally different.
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Therein lies the rub. They're both technically "illegal". Everyone has their own threshold. What about $1000? Keep it? Report it?
 
I am fascinated that people would keep what is not theirs, not mad, just fascinated. Kind of like finding the golf club at the golf course right? What is different in the principle that it isn't yours? o_O
 
Luchnia said:
I am fascinated that people would keep what is not theirs, not mad, just fascinated. Kind of like finding the golf club at the golf course right? What is different in the principle that it isn't yours? o_O
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Sometimes, I pick up tees left behind on the tee box, use them, and sometimes even take them with me.

Everyone has a limit to how much is ok and how much is not ok. Chances are, many of us have different limits.
 
OGputtnfool said:
Sometimes, I pick up tees left behind on the tee box, use them, and sometimes even take them with me.

Everyone has a limit to how much is ok and how much is not ok. Chances are, many of us have different limits.
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I agree with that. I think it is hard to compare some things such as a left behind tee to a mil found on the highway.
 
Luchnia said:
I agree with that. I think it is hard to compare some things such as a left behind tee to a mil found on the highway.
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Oh, I know, but I was simply responding to the "I am fascinated that people would keep what is not theirs..." part.

Like I've said many times, everyone has a different threshold.

I think it should be reported to the police, I guess, if it's not able to be ascertained who it belongs to, but I wouldn't simply turn over that much money to them just so they could split it up and I'd never see it when it wasn't claimed.
 
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