Finding Money

[Mr. DS]

I find there is hardly a thing more overjoyous than encountering some lost money on the ground.  I found a dollar the other day and it pretty much made my week. yep I'm shallow about some things.  I also found a twenty here and there in the past which is beyond awesome.  One time I was at a store and had about twenty bucks worth of stuff and found a twenty right at the checkout.  I had all but to hold back from yelling, "F*CK YEAH!" at the register.  

I'm always looking around for lost money in parking lots and though a good percent of the time I never find it, sometimes I'll encounter something. So have you ever found money someone lost on the ground?  If so how much?  

[HappyGilmore]

Normally, when I find money on the ground, I keep it.  Although, one time at a drug store I frequent, I found one $100 bill.  At the time, I needed the money, but something told me to give it to the girl I knew working there.  Turns out, a senior citizen had been in that morning to get some prescriptions filled (it's mostly older people that frequent it), and was due back in a half hour to get em picked up.  Long story short, they're on a tight budget and had lost their money and was freaking out when they got to the store cause she didn't have money for her heart medication.  She was informed that I had left the money in the register for her.  However, if I had found the money outside...I'd have kept it.

I did find $5 this week on my way to work.  Which made me happy.  And I found about $2 last week.

Most amounts I find are under $5.

[Couchtr26]

I haven't had that happen as much as when I was a kid.  I remember finding bucks and getting soda.  Usually a dollar or two a week, nothing ever major. 

[Leah]

found a hundred in my house once.... I also once had so many quarters that it added up to $18.00!

[Jack]

Found about fifteen bucks laying in a parking lot once.  Also, going through the drive-thru at the bank one time, there was well over a hundred bucks in the little tray thing they shuttled back and forth.  Being an idiot, I told the teller about it and sent it back.  I figured they had me on camera.

The other day we were taking a walk and I found a dime.  It's kind of covered in tar and my cleaning efforts haven't been too successful.  But hey, it's ten cents!

[Killer Bees]

A couple of years back when my son wa still living at home, we were coming back from work/school and I was dead broke.  I was dog tired and stressed and all I wanted was $20 t buy a pizza for dinner and some ice cream for dessert.  AS we walked through a petrol station to get to our street, I looked down i the drvie way and fournd a $50 note!!!     We had quite a feast that night.

One time I found heaps of cash was when I was cleaning out my wardrobe one day and in the pocket of a jacket I forgot I owned, I found $60.

I was standing in a  chicken takeout place a couple of years ago and they had an ATM in the store.  It was pretty busy with lots of people taking out money.  After one guy left I happened to glance over and found $20 in the bottom of the shute.  He obviously forgot to take it with the rest of his cash.  Unfortunately, I didn't see the guy's face so I couldn't return it to him.  I took the $20 for myself.

But normally I find 5 or 10 cent pieces quite regularly.

[SPazzo]

A few years ago my mum and I were in the parking lot of Goodwill walking to our car.  She found, on the ground, two hundred dollars, folded up, with a little piece of paper with the weed logo drawn on it.  We took it home and called the Goodwill, and no one reported it missing or anything.  We ended up keeping it, which was probably good as it ended up paying for groceries for a couple weeks.

[wickednick]

recently at a Pick n Save I went through one of the quick lanes where you scan the items your self. Well some how when I checked out I must have hit the button to give me $20 dollars cash back and not realized it. I walked out the store and a clerk came running after me with the money in hand. Luckily she was honest and looking out or I would have been out 20 bucks.

[RD]

Once while working at a grocery store many years ago, I was wrangling carts in the parking lot and found a $10 bill wedge under the flimsy plastic seat of a cart. Then another time at closing I spotted a 20 on the ground. I kept the money both times...

[claws]

My sister used to work for a firm specialized in cleaning phone booths back in the 90s. They gave her her own car, sanitizing products and a weekly new route with selected booths she had to clean.
I would join to keep her company ever so often because the job was kind of boring.
We found small change all the time with totals between 5-15 bucks by the end of the week. We also found several wallets and purses without ID that no one reported missing. The biggest amount we got to keep was about $230.
Last summer I found a ten euro bill ($14) on the street, neatly folded.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

I once found a $20 on the ground at our now out of business Video Mart store about 17 or 18 years back.   Once while on the walk to Johnny's Hotdogs (about 2\10 of a mile from my old house) I found a beat-to-hell $5 bill on the side of the road.

And one time, at a laundry-mat, I pulled about $40 bucks in various denominations out of the dryer I was drying my clothes in.  One of the ladies near me said, "can I have your dryer when you're done"?   

Other than these stand-out moments, no new finds for some years now. 

[Flick James]

A combination of values and circumstance guide our behavior. At least, that's my excuse. I was pulling into a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican food joint because they had good inexpensive food. Fitting since I was pretty broke at the time.

Anyway, I pulled up, turned off the motor, opened the door, put my foot down, and looking down as I was getting out fo the car, I see my foot was partially covering a $50 bill. It was like Kismet. The $50 number was staring at me clearly, protruding out from under the front of my shoe. I picked it up, looked around, and the lot was pretty empty being the middle of the afternoon, so I put it in my pocket and went my merry way.

I felt bad for the person who lost the $50, but as broke as I was at the time it came in handy and bought some groceries.

[The Burgomaster]

Not exactly "found" money, but . . .

Back when I used to work in a video rental store I needed to go to the bank for change.  I handed the teller $25 (in $5s and $10s) and asked for twenty-five one-dollar bills.  The teller handed me a packet of bills with a paper band around the middle.  When I got into my car, I noticed the teller had given me a packet of $5 bills rather than $1 bills.  So, I went to a different bank, got my 25 singles and kept the rest of the $5 bills.  Later, someone who worked in a bank told me the teller may have been fired for making this mistake.  Sometimes I still feel bad about this.  But at the time I thought it was a pretty good "score."

Also, a few years ago I wore a jacket that I hadn't worn for at least a year.  I reached into the pocket and found a $20 bill.  Sure, it was MY $20, but it felt like "found money."

[ulthar]

Also, a few years ago I wore a jacket that I hadn't worn for at least a year.  I reached into the pocket and found a $20 bill.  Sure, it was MY $20, but it felt like "found money."

Yep, I was going to post this.  I get more excited about finding my own money that I forgot about.  A few bills in a jacket is most common.  That way, I get the thrill of the find without the sadness that my gain meant someone else's loss.

[Raffine]

When I was around ten I vividly remember one day being at the grocery store with my mom. I had naturally peeled off from mom to gaze at the cereal I knew she wouldn't get when suddenly I spotted a twenty bill on the floor! A fortune!

Being an honest if somewhat dim child instead of picking it up I went and found her to ask if it was OK to pick it up. She said it was, but naturally when I got back it was gone.