Honest guy or idiot?

[vash]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Denis, A little surprised by your view.

Who the money belonged to and who was responsible for its loss is irrelevant.

There is no grey area here. It's either right or wrong.

i agree. the right thing to do would have been to give it back. i personally would have gone the WRONG route. i would put it into a safe deposit box and just let is sit for awhile. then just slowly bleed it down. buy small stuff with it like groceries, gas... no big purchases that raises any red flags. i wouldnt even tell my wife. she would make me give it back.

then just take my paycheck and increase my savings...make it look legit.

[Rikao4]

we all have spent 'imagine this situation type $'
but until that fateful day..
some will keep, some will return, and some will drive & pass the $...
Rika

[speeder]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

Denis, A little surprised by your view.

Who the money belonged to and who was responsible for its loss is irrelevant.

There is no grey area here. It's either right or wrong.

I respect your morality, so let me pose you a (purely academic) question:

If you knew for a fact that a bag of $$ belonged to Mexican drug dealers or Taiwanese human traffickers, would you feel morally compelled to return it to them? How about Saddam Hussein's sons, if they were still alive?

Not saying that Brinks is in the same category as any of these examples, just wondering if there is any *line of demarcation* where you would not feel compelled to return the $$.

I have found wallets, noticed women leaving restaurants w/o their $5k LV handbags full of CCs and cash or found expensive cell phones and ipods and never once thought for a second about keeping them. No grey area for me there. Somehow the dropped Brinks bag has always been different to me, though. I think that a lot of what I consider to be good people would keep it.

[Jeff Higgins]

If I found a wad like that from a source like Brinks, it would definitely be going back. Now if it fell out of the back of an Escalade rollin' on 22's, not so much.

[KFC911]

I have reconsidered my position, and agree with Higgins

[JavaBrewer]

If I kept the money I would feel like a thief the rest of my life. No thanks.

That said the $2K reward is pretty lame.

[onewhippedpuppy]

It's not mine, so it's not mine to keep. However, it would be VERY difficult to turn that in. VERY DIFFICULT.........

$2k is pretty lame though, considering the amount he gave back.

[masraum]

at the same time, you shouldn't require reward for doing the right thing, and anything that you get should just be gravy and unexpected

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by speeder

If you knew for a fact that a bag of $$ belonged to Mexican drug dealers or Taiwanese human traffickers, would you feel morally compelled to return it to them? How about Saddam Hussein's sons, if they were still alive?

I'd return it to any of those guys out of shear panic that they may come collectin if you get my drift.

Seriously, if you know the source of the money, in this case Brinks or BOA, and you decide to keep it that is theft.

In terms of the aforementioned low life's, if I knew the money was derived from criminal activities I would not return it, I would turn it into the police. Blood money is blood money no matter how one comes by it.

Following your logic if I rob a bank, lose $140k in the getaway and you find it..........

Now if i've lived in my house for 20 years and one day while diggin a hole in my backyard I find $140k worth of 30 year old bills in an unmarked bag then it's mine.

[Rick Lee]

There was a story in Neil Peart's book Roadshow, in which one of the cases fell off his motorcycle on the hwy. in CO and he didn't notice it for several miles. In the case was his wedding band and Patek Phillipe watch. He couldn't find the case when he backtracked. Some good samaritan picked it up, drilled it open and found Neil's cell phone # inside. He called and left Neil a vm. Neil accidentally hit 7 instead of 9, deleting instead of saving it. He never heard from the guy again. What do you do there?

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

I'd return it to any of those guys out of shear panic that they may come collectin if you get my drift.

Seriously, if you know the source of the money, in this case Brinks or BOA, and you decide to keep it that is theft.

In terms of the aforementioned low life's, if I knew the money was derived from criminal activities I would not return it, I would turn it into the police. Blood money is blood money no matter how one comes by it.

Following your logic if I rob a bank, lose $140k in the getaway and you find it..........

Now if i've lived in my house for 20 years and one day while diggin a hole in my backyard I find $140k worth of 30 year old bills in an unmarked bag then it's mine.

Ever see Thunderbolt and Lightfoot?

[DARISC]

Being an honest person, I'd like to think I'd turn it in. I know it was insured but consider the poor insurance co. (like, do you think those those poor folks have insurance ?).

Think about how fair and considerate insurance companies are of their insured (you and I) and the low rates that those beleagured companies are forced to charge us, just to keep their heads above water!

Well,.... I just thought about that.

I just might keep it.

Hell, I don't know! Put me in that situation and I'll decide then !

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by speeder

I respect your morality, so let me pose you a (purely academic) question:

If you knew for a fact that a bag of $$ belonged to Mexican drug dealers

well, I don't want Anton coming after me, so I'll just leave it alone...

[MRM]

[QUOTE=speeder;3878811]I respect your morality, so let me pose you a (purely academic) question:

If you knew for a fact that a bag of $$ belonged to Mexican drug dealers or Taiwanese human traffickers, would you feel morally compelled to return it to them? How about Saddam Hussein's sons, if they were still alive?

QUOTE]

It didn't belong to him. He had to give it back.

As for the hypotheticals, illegal money does not belong to the criminal. It is contraband. If found it is to be turned in to the police. It will either be forfited to the state, returned to true owners, or possibly be given to the findee, depending on the situation, state law, and where the money came from. So the principle remains the same: found money gets turned in to the proper authorities.

[911boost]

I can applaud his honesty.

With that being said Dennis, Brink's does not make a "boat load" of cash. The cash handling business all in all is not very profitable.

Bill

[the]

Originally Posted by speeder

If you allowed me to work in your house and I stole so much as Red Bull out of your refrigerator I could not face myself. This bag of money, I would spend w/o a care in the world.

Would you declare it as income on your tax return, or would you cheat on your taxes, too?

[speeder]

Originally Posted by the

Would you declare it as income on your tax return, or would you cheat on your taxes, too?

Maybe I'd just send it directly to Halliburton or KBR's corporate office and skip the middleman.

[DARISC]

Originally Posted by the

Would you declare it as income on your tax return, or would you cheat on your taxes, too?

If it were me, I'd just consider that I'd bought any undiscovered buried treasure along with the house, bushes, gophers, etc. But I wouldn't tell anyone I'd found it. No one's business, including the the IRS, as I, admittedly naively, see it.

Edit - Oops, meant to respond to Stomachemonkey, "Now if i've lived in my house for 20 years and one day while diggin a hole in my backyard I find $140k worth of 30 year old bills in an unmarked bag then it's mine."

[scottmandue]

Sorry my karma ran over your dogma...

[widgeon13]

Good man, he did what was correct.

He certainly isn't going to make it as a politician but he is definitely an honorable person.