Hybrid | 427 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Today I came home from work and found a cellphone on the lawn to where I live. I powered it up and found a message on it (on the first screen that came up) to call this number if found. I waited for a bit and then decided to call the number. When I got ahold of the person she seemed almost shocked that someone called. I still have reservations about doing it. Did I do the right thing? 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,794 Administrator · Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 I mean... of course you did? I can't imagine a situation where that's not the right thing to do, excluding some weird movie plot where it turns out the phone belonged to the mafia and now you're being chased by a drug cartel because that specific phone had an SD card on it with data pertaining to all the mafia heads' identities and current locations. Or something. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Monkey | 2,011 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 I don't get it. What other option did you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePhleo | 2,185 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Gonna get a lot of "Of course you did" and "duh's" But put it in terms like this: If I found a $100 bill on the ground in an empty park with no one there then I have three options. Leave it there Bring it to the police Pick it up I wouldn't leave it there, and I wouldn't take time out of my day to bring it to the police ... so logically I'll pick it up myself. However, if I found a wallet with a $100 bill and an ID then the moral dilemma is a bit different. There's now a perceivable way to return it to the rightful owner, and there are simple methods of returning a lost wallet (i.e. leave it in your postbox and the post office will return it free of charge...or at least, that's the rumor on the street) Since you have a way to return it then, the ONLY right thing to do is to return it. ... Long story short: Duh, of course you did 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid | 427 Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 (edited) 20 minutes ago, Code Monkey said: I don't get it. What other option did you have? As others have said leave it there. Fix it and claim it for myself Throw it away Remember there's always other options. I'm still waiting on the call back when the person gets here Edited February 9, 2021 by Hybrid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,729 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Many years back when I was working in Gettysburg manning the Electric Map (anyone remember that?) I found a bag someone had left there. I thought it was just that of one of my female colleagues, so I jokingly started to open it when she came back, but it turned out it wasn't hers, and there was about $500 in it, which was essentially two weeks worth of pay for me back then, as an 18-year old. We turned it in, there really wasn't any moment where we thought about doing otherwise, and eventually the woman came back and claimed it, shocked that all the money was still there, basically her holiday fund. Flashforward twelve years later, my brother came to visit me in Taiwan and somehow he left his bag with his money on a shuttle bus running from the airport to the train station. The driver found it and turned it in, my brother got it back with everything intact. We were shocked, but this sort of situation is quite common here, people cheat on taxes and steal via ip theft and what not, but stealing other people's things like this, not very common. I think the world needs more people to do the right thing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avatar! | 1,819 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 (edited) I once found a wallet with $200 cash in it. Had the ID and everything. I gave it to a police officer. Hopefully the guy who dropped it got his wallet as well as the $200 back. Edited February 9, 2021 by avatar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid | 427 Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 Update the person seemed really grateful when she picked up her phone and I felt good for giving it to her 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Monkey | 2,011 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 You would actually consider stealing something that isn't yours? What's the difference in keeping it and pulling a knife on someone to steal it? Sounds like the same thing to me, it's robbery either way. Man, I don't understand how people can do some things, I have seen situations where $20 makes the difference between rent and homelessness for a person and thinking about that person being kicked out of their home so I can buy a bag of chips just seems ridiculous. I always think that I have the option to do what's best for me or to do what's best for everyone else all the time. If I do what's best for me, I have a total of 1 person in the entire world looking out for my best interest. If everyone always did what's best for everyone else first, then I would have billions of people looking out for my best interest. Which would you prefer? I was in the dressing room getting dressed before hockey one day and some guys next to me were talking about times they found a wallet and took out all the gift cards before returning it, laughing about it. I stopped talking to that person, I didn't trust them with anything I owned and I made sure I didn't use their plumbing company for any work on my home, plus I told all of my friends about it. The amount of money they lost for a couple of gift cards is huge and they still don't even know it. Yes, you did the right thing. At some point in everyone's life, they wonder if they're a good person because money start to become less important. Not everyone is able to say they are. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hybrid | 427 Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 3 minutes ago, Code Monkey said: You would actually consider stealing something that isn't yours? What's the difference in keeping it and pulling a knife on someone to steal it? Sounds like the same thing to me, it's robbery either way. Man, I don't understand how people can do some things, I have seen situations where $20 makes the difference between rent and homelessness for a person and thinking about that person being kicked out of their home so I can buy a bag of chips just seems ridiculous. I always think that I have the option to do what's best for me or to do what's best for everyone else all the time. If I do what's best for me, I have a total of 1 person in the entire world looking out for my best interest. If everyone always did what's best for everyone else first, then I would have billions of people looking out for my best interest. Which would you prefer? I was in the dressing room getting dressed before hockey one day and some guys next to me were talking about times they found a wallet and took out all the gift cards before returning it, laughing about it. I stopped talking to that person, I didn't trust them with anything I owned and I made sure I didn't use their plumbing company for any work on my home, plus I told all of my friends about it. The amount of money they lost for a couple of gift cards is huge and they still don't even know it. Yes, you did the right thing. At some point in everyone's life, they wonder if they're a good person because money start to become less important. Not everyone is able to say they are. Dealing with the public in general has hardened me over the 20+ years of working retail. I personally would not consider doing it, but it was an option. Doing something nice for someone made me feel good. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Monkey | 2,011 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Just now, Hybrid said: Dealing with the public in general has hardened me over the 20+ years of working retail. I personally would not consider doing it, but it was an option. Doing something nice for someone made me feel good. Me too but think of it this way. You have the option to be part of the problem or part of the solution. If you choose to be part of the problem, then you can no longer complain about the problem yourself. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fcgamer | 4,729 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 9 minutes ago, Code Monkey said: Me too but think of it this way. You have the option to be part of the problem or part of the solution. If you choose to be part of the problem, then you can no longer complain about the problem yourself. Agreed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulpa | 3,516 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 45 minutes ago, Hybrid said: Dealing with the public in general has hardened me over the 20+ years of working retail. I personally would not consider doing it, but it was an option. Doing something nice for someone made me feel good. I know firsthand how shitty and entitled people can be when you have something they want, but I think we need to give people we've never met the benefit of the doubt first. It helps you more than it helps them by not becoming a cynical bastard. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murray | 2,449 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 50 minutes ago, Hybrid said: Dealing with the public in general has hardened me over the 20+ years of working retail. I personally would not consider doing it, but it was an option. Doing something nice for someone made me feel good. Irregardless, you did the right thing... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cartman | 195 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 I've done that too altough it was back in the day and the phone was shit. But yeah i'd do it with a good one too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bearcat-Doug | 5,105 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 1 hour ago, Hybrid said: Update the person seemed really grateful when she picked up her phone and I felt good for giving it to her This should confirm that you did the right thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drxandy | 3,235 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 I found an iphone while disc golfing years back, got ahold of the persons contact as mom and the owner came back to the course super grateful and told me I could pick any disc in their bag as a thank you. It was way more than I expected, but I would hope someone would do the same for me if I had lost my phone. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TDIRunner | 2,744 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 About six months ago, I had a package delivered to my house that wasn't for me. It had someone else's name and address on it. I have no idea how UPS managed to leave it at my door, but they did. I ended up driving the package over to the person's house and gave it to them and they were very grateful. They had a "package delivered" notification, but no package, so they figured it was gone forever. Then a few months later close to Christmas time, we had a similar incident. My wife had a "package delivered" notification, with a picture of the delivery. There was no package outside. We looked at the picture and sure enough it was NOT our front door. I was hoping that maybe it went to another house on our same street, so I walked up and down the block and sure enough I found a door that matched the one in the picture. I talked to the person and they were kind enough to give me the package. Here is the funny part, the delivered package did not have any name or address on it. It only had a shipping label with a bar code. So I had no real way of proving that the package was mine. The other person knew the package didn't belong to them, but since they get their daughter's mail so often, they just assumed it belonged to her. Luckily, they were nice enough to let us have our package, because if they had said no, there wouldn't have been much I could do about it. I always felt like it was good karma coming back to me for returning the other person's package several months earlier. Also, for anyone interested, our package that was delivered to the wrong house was one of those Hoverboards. Those aren't cheap, so it would have been a huge hassle to try and prove that we never received a high dollar item since tracking showed it as delivered. On top of all of that, Wal-Mart shipped the Hoverboard in it's original packaging instead of a brown box. So this thing was sitting out in the open that anyone could see if they drove by. That's an easy target for theft. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a3quit4s | 4,103 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 (edited) I found a dudes wallet somewhere and it had the ID in it. Wasn’t far away so I drove it to him. It was actually his mother’s address and she didn’t speak much English but I showed her the wallet and ID and she called him and he was very thankful. Treat people how you want to be treated. Edited February 9, 2021 by a3quit4s 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorEncore | 3,691 Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 Minimal effort for maximum benefit. It's a no brainer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avatar! | 1,819 Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 7 hours ago, Code Monkey said: You would actually consider stealing something that isn't yours? What's the difference in keeping it and pulling a knife on someone to steal it? Sounds like the same thing to me, it's robbery either way. HUGE difference... Of course, you would hope that someone would "do the right thing" and return a wallet they find, but stealing from a wallet you happen to find vs armed robbery is the like night and day and the law treats it as such. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelwilson | 3 Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 Hmm. Dou you think you had an another option ? It's a normal thing to bring back the thing that doesn't belong to you. Or what do you mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phart010 | 1,707 Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 You did the right thing. In my opinion it’s always best to return it to the owner if it has identifying information. If there’s no info, then just leave it where you found it, or put it in a more conspicuous place close to where you found it, maybe the owner will be retracing their steps trying to find it. I dropped my prescription glasses while walking through Turkey on vacation one time. Retraced my steps and found them on sitting top of the platform around a monument close to where I was walking. Someone must have put them there so they wouldn’t get stepped on 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boosted52405 | 178 Posted February 11, 2021 Share Posted February 11, 2021 Good for you OP! In those ethical dilemmas with nothing to gain I like to ask myself, "what if I were in this situation?" and then react from there. If I had lost a phone I would be ecstatic a stranger helped me get it back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kguillemette | 1,545 Posted February 12, 2021 Share Posted February 12, 2021 I once dropped my wallet at a gas station while filling up and didn't notice for hours it was missing. A good Samaritan brought it inside to the cashier, I called and they said they had it. Maybe that good Samaritan was you? I'm always happy to read stories of people doing the right thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now