Would you give the money away?

[Guest mormonmusic]

Wondered if you would give the money to the previous owners if you were in the situation these people were in -- where they bought a house and found $45,000 stashed away in it.

Family finds $45,000 in new home then returns it - Yahoo! News

[Jennarator]

I would make a very good attmpt to getting back to the owners. I'm sure it would be faily easy to track them down.

It would be fun to imagin all the things you could do with that money. But I would also see what the cops recommend doing with it. Who knows where that money came from? I would not keep it, for sure!

[Guest]

Legally the money is theirs - bought with the house.

But if it was me - yeah, I'd return it just because I don't do well with money that I didn't earn. It's going to bug me to death.

[applepansy]

I'd return the money.

[pam]

It would have been nice if at least the Bangerters had offered him a portion of it as a reward of sorts. Honesty has to be worth something these days.

[applepansy]

I agree pam. After reading the whole story. I think its really cool that they returned the money to the children. It would have been so easy to say..."the guy who saved this is dead. he doesn't need it and I do."

I still would have returned it. It would bug me forever if I kept something under those circumstances.

[billsmith]

Isn't it the legal rule that if you find money you have to give it to the police? They hold it for a certain amount of time in case someone comes looking for it. Then if it isn't claimed it is legally yours. I would do that because what if it belonged to another party and that party came looking for it. Then you would be sued for giving it to the old owner's kids. Sad - but that is the way the world is today. After it was pronounced legally yours - then you could safely give it away.

[beefche]

It would have been nice if at least the Bangerters had offered him a portion of it as a reward of sorts. Honesty has to be worth something these days.

I understand that sentiment, but honestly, I think that having integrity is worth so much more than any monetary reward.

I read about some kid that found $2500 and returned it to the owner. Now the kid is raising a stink because he wants a monetary reward for returning the money.

Yes, it would be nice for the family to offer some kind of monetary reward, but at the same time, I think it says alot more that they returned it without any expectation of receiving money in return.

[NeuroTypical]

Isn't it the legal rule that if you find money you have to give it to the police?

I don't think so, no.

[Vort]

Isn't it the legal rule that if you find money you have to give it to the police?

I'm pretty sure you have to give it to Vort.

[pam]

I understand that sentiment, but honestly, I think that having integrity is worth so much more than any monetary reward.

I read about some kid that found $2500 and returned it to the owner. Now the kid is raising a stink because he wants a monetary reward for returning the money.

Yes, it would be nice for the family to offer some kind of monetary reward, but at the same time, I think it says alot more that they returned it without any expectation of receiving money in return.

Oh I don't disagree with you at all. I know they weren't expecting it. They were doing the right thing. They didn't ask for a reward.

I'm just saying, it would have been nice on the Bangerters part to have offered something.

[Captain_Curmudgeon]

Believe in God, karma, eternal justice? Give it back.

Otherwise, no.

Except I think I would have given it back and I don't believe.

[Blackmarch]

I would make a very good attmpt to getting back to the owners. I'm sure it would be faily easy to track them down.

It would be fun to imagin all the things you could do with that money. But I would also see what the cops recommend doing with it. Who knows where that money came from? I would not keep it, for sure!

heh the hard part would be shaving a little off for oneself IMO.

[john doe]

Isn't it the legal rule that if you find money you have to give it to the police? They hold it for a certain amount of time in case someone comes looking for it. Then if it isn't claimed it is legally yours. I would do that because what if it belonged to another party and that party came looking for it. Then you would be sued for giving it to the old owner's kids. Sad - but that is the way the world is today. After it was pronounced legally yours - then you could safely give it away.

I'm not a lawyer, but I do occasionally play one on the internet. I believe that if you buy something 'as is', as it appears this family did, then you own everything on the premises. I believe the buyer had every legal right to keep the found money.

I wonder about the children of the dead man, that they didn't care enough about their father's affairs to even bother to go through the boxes in his garage. Not even a cursory look to see if he had something of monetary or sentimental value. To them, it seems that all he had was junk and they were happy to be rid of it. And if they didn't offer the buyer a reward for returning something that legally wasn't theirs, then they are ungrateful recipients of a gift. This is found money to them, and if they don't try to share it with the finder, then it tells me a lot about them.

On the other hand, I applaud the home buyer for his integrity, and teaching his children about taking and keeping things that you did not earn. I'm sure he could have found good uses for fixing up and upgrading the home, and it would have been easy for someone without integrity to have kept it without saying a word to the sellers.

[Wingnut]

I wonder about the children of the dead man, that they didn't care enough about their father's affairs to even bother to go through the boxes in his garage. Not even a cursory look to see if he had something of monetary or sentimental value. To them, it seems that all he had was junk and they were happy to be rid of it. And if they didn't offer the buyer a reward for returning something that legally wasn't theirs, then they are ungrateful recipients of a gift. This is found money to them, and if they don't try to share it with the finder, then it tells me a lot about them.

I've also been thinking that was odd.

...and it would have been easy for someone without integrity to have kept it without saying a word to the sellers.

Interestingly, he was quoted as saying something to the effect that it wasn't an easy decision -- it definitely wasn't automatic. I'm actually a little glad to hear that, because I thought of the "as is" thing too -- technically, he probably could have kept it without legal consequence.