There handing this dude a very very large check for defamation and malicious prosecution unless they took it out of a wallet given that it's completely legal to keep found loose money without looking for the owner.
this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2026
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Technically in most jurisdictions in the USA you’re supposed to make a reasonable effort to find the owner (eg asking nearby people if they dropped it) and then turn it into the police. If no one comes forward to claim it you are then entitled to it
However in a practical sense no one would do this (except maybe the ask if someone dropped it part) and the police would steal the turned in money 9.9 times out of 10
For claimable property like a wallet yes. For loose money there is no obligation to do so.
Technically in most jurisdictions in pedant world you’re supposed to do the Hokey Pokey first, then turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about
There's penalties if the owner manages to prove ownership which is excessively difficult even with video. The law hinges on knowing to be theft and proving ownership also means proving you didn't abandon it and along with littering the fact it is abandoned when it was found is an affirmative defense, the owner would be the one to jump through hoops to prove, it's theirs and they did not abandon it.
Depends on jurisdiction, obviously, but not always the case. Technically in New York any lost property with a value over $20 must be turned into police (NY Personal Property Law §§ 251–258). But as you say the ability to prove ownership of loose currency is basically nonexistent (unless you’re Mr burns in that one Simpsons episode) so prosecution is unheard of. At least, until we met our current surveillance state dystopia
Also in NY the money is not inherently turned back to the finder. Found money goes into the city treasury unless the finder stakes a claim. But this would likely take so much time and paperwork headache that any feasible currency you would find would almost certainly not be worth the effort (maybe if you find some mafia dummy’s billfold, I guess, but then it’s approaching “wallet” territory anyway and also probably a bad idea to keep for other reasons)
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It's actually not that uncommon for people to turn in lost cash if it's more than like $5. Happened fairly frequently when I worked retail/hospitality.
Most people are decent and honest and know how they would feel if they lost a larger sum of money. Although I get keeping it if you can't reasonably ascertain what location the person who lost it was visiting. No one is going to think to check with the police for $30 they randomly dropped in the street. ****
Thats like only 3 bananas these days.
One time as a kid I tried to turn in $20 (back when that meamt something) to a nearby police officer. He just looked at me funny and told me it's my lucky day and to go buy some candy or something. I did exactly that, but it tasted weird
These pigs don't got morals... straight up master slave kink with a dash of pagentry. Standing there as those kids got slaughtered in Uvalde. All the pigs are filthy bastards
The next person: "Yes, I totally dropped it. Thanks for lunch!"
So I'm supposed to ask nearby people if they dropped money. Yah right hey sir did you drop some cash? Uhh yes I did.
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There should be a minimum for that.
Also, the first person you ask will probably say "Yes totally, I... dropped that.... Thank you kind stranger!"
And if you turn it into the police, you're never fucking getting it back. "Sorry, we lost the paperwork" he says while his fridge at home is stocked up on all the beer you just bought him.
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You have to wonder: How did this come to anyone's attention in the first place? But it could be that the person who lost the money asked Walmart for help, and the cameras caught the story.
So this may not be as baleful a sign of our times as it at first seems. But how much effort do police departments make for stolen bicycles? It's definitely an example of the cops taking a crime seriously, not because the crime is serious, but because the case is easy.
Trump probably smelled $30 he wasnt stealing.
How did this come to anyone's attention in the first place?
A cop had recently been dumped by someone who was in the vicinity of the dropped $30.
I once had the cops find my stolen bike, because the state required you to have a registration number.
I never picked it up since the reason they recovered it is because they saw a black guy riding it and figured it must be stolen.
Why would you not want your bike back?
But dont you see, by never interacting with those cops again, and letting them keep his property for free, he made a true moral stand!
We found Shen's lemmy account
Being that naive must be nice. No one ever steals for any other reason than necessity, right?
But the cooss had it probably sold st an auction.
He was scared he'd get murdered by the black guy obviously.
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This can't be real. Unless he took it from a wallet he found on the ground, there is no crime. This feels like ragebait. Does anyone have a credible link?
It was real. The cops got shit for it, but they claim the guy saw a lady drop it. In the end, he gave the money back.
Albany authorities said the man saw the woman drop the money at the store and could have faced charges in the case. However, because he returned the $30, charges would not be filed.
Said. Huh. They have him on video picking up the money, but not him seeing it...
With the trustworthiness of GA PDs, not sure I'd trust them "saying" anything.
Thanks for the link!
And I am sure they track the woman down and gave her back the 30? How much money did it cost tax payers for all this policing?
It doesn't sound like there was any actual policing involved. They got a webcam still and posted it to social media.
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There was "operation lucky bag" where the NYPD would purposefully leave a backpack, and arrest people who picked it up
There's other coverage out there too.
The police are not a force for good.
"This can't be real" is what other countries say whenever they see trump saying/doing anything so its really doesn't have the weight it used to.
I don't have a link, but I do remember reading the article about this about a week ago. I think it happened in a Walmart, and the article didn't really go into details about what the actual crime was.
Who would actually turn him in though?
There’s also Luigi Mangioni to consider. Those McDonald’s employees made public the fact that rewards for turning people in, don’t happen, the majority of the time.
Even if the “crime” is more egregious than picking up $30 blowing in the wind, who would bother?
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If they don't know where he is, how do they know he kept it? Perhaps he's taking the long way round to drop it off.
Yeah im reporting that guy has fled to Israel and joined the IDF.
Genuinely, in the U.S, what is the crime here?
Circumvention of capitalism. Money must be earned unless you have over a million.
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The total labor hours spent is at least $300
Destroy cameras whenever you can
For fucks sake: its money. Why would you turn it in?
There is nothing identifiable about it. It makes no sense. Besides at the rate the US is going it will have halved in purchase power in the next week anyway.
I'm assuming our law enforcement is long accustomed to the spoils of asset forfeiture, and believe they are entitled to every bit of loose cash or liquidatable valuables they find, including in your wallet, in your car or on your property during an unlawful search.
Surveillance experts have been warning about the mission creep of mass surveillance since before the Snowden reports.
I can't even fill my car's gas tank with that much
Police would just keep it
Plot twist: he also said something mildly disparaging about Ice or Charlie Kirk on the internet. Get 'em, boys!
Naturally, we should spend all of our money on cops and not social services. /s Fuck cops.
LET THE MAN KEEP IT. HE BENT OVER, PICKED UP DISCARDED THINGS AND FOUND PURPOSE FOR IT. NOT ONLY IS THAT CLEANING UP LITTER ITS RECYCLING. THATS WORTH $30
Social credit score but it's real
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