<p>I would consider $100 and social security cards quote different in terms of value! ;)</p>
<p>Back in the grad school days, we lived in cheap married student housing close to where the new basketball arena was built. Despite polite signs stating that the apartment lots were for residents only, we learned that we didn’t dare leave our parking lot on game days because we would lose our spot. Especially if we had shoveled a path in and out of our spot. One time we had to leave, and lost our spot. The next morning we found a $20 bill frozen into the snow where the driver of the car who took our spot would have dropped it. That’s the only time I can think of where I didn’t make a large effort to find the owner…paid for our groceries for a week!</p>
<p>If I ever find a 100 dollar bill, I will gladly return it to any claimant who can tell me the serial number.</p>
<p>^ ^</p>
<p>LOL! Good one!</p>
<p>Back in April 1994, on Easter Sunday, my husband and I were departing from Panama City airport, Florida. While waiting for the plane to begin taxiing I gradually became aware of something lumpy and uncomfortable under my left hip. I reached between the seats and pulled out an eyeglass case stuffed with a thick wad of rolled up bills! I called over the flight attendant so she could turn it in before the plane took off. She said the seats had been occupied by 2 girls who had arrived for Spring Break. I like to think they got their money back and salvaged their vacation, but of course I’ll never know. How could I have kept it, knowing how miserable the loss would make them?</p>
<p>$40 is a LOT of money for me to lose, and would mean not eating a meal or two a day for quite awhile. So I would definitely turn it in at the customer service desk, for fear that someone else was in the same predicament, as well as just being the morally correct thing to do in my opinion.</p>
<p>“Keep in mind that this a common way for employees to steal from their employers because the natural inclination is for the recipient of the freebee to put the amount of the drink/ other purchase in the tip jar. If it happens multiple times, it is likely a corrupt employee”</p>
<p>Haven’t met any of those corrupt employees. It’s generally because they messed up someone’s drink so now they have an extra something or another to give away, or throw down the sink. Or that I had to wait for a long time to get another pot of drip brewing.</p>
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<p>You’ve never lost something that was valuable to you?</p>
<p>Some of you may have noticed postings at some fast food or retail stores, “If you don’t get a receipt, your purchase is on us.” The reason they do that is to prevent their employees from stealing from them. If employees do not enter the transaction in the system, there is no evidence of a sale.</p>
<p>Oldfort is correct. Employee theft is the number one cause of “shrink” in the service industry. That does not mean that if you are given a free drink the employee is stealing, though. Frequently servers have a comp system and some discretion that is completely legitimate. If they were stealing the customer would probably never know about it.</p>
<p>I think most people would keep the 40-dollars and consider it their lucky day. I also don’t think most people are going to back to a store and ask if anyone found 40 bucks because most people would not expect anyone to turn it in unless it’s in a wallet. But just cash, probably not.</p>
<p>Employees can’t steal if they are giving out free drinks. It is when they take cash from you and not ringing it up, that’s when there is a possibility of theft.</p>
<p>We have done analysis on transaction data to detect employee theft, but if there is no data then it is hard to detect.</p>
<p>Not to derail the thread too much, but here’s a typical way that employees steal by under-ringing items or giving them for free: I used to go to a neighborhood coffee shop every morning where my medium coffee was two bucks. One morning, the cashier “accidentally” rung it up as a small at $1.25. When I pointed out the error, he said, oh no problem, you can have it for $1.25. So what did I do? Same thing that most people would do: i threw the $0.75 in the tip jar. Okay, once, no big deal. But then it happened again. And again. But after the third time, it dawned on me: this employee was stealing from his employee by relying on the natural inclination to tip in the amount of the discount. </p>
<p>It’s the equivalent of the front desk clerk at a hotel who distributes upgrades based on “tips” presented at check-in. Hotels have specific guidelines for how upgrades are awarded; the size of a tip to an individual employee is not one of the accepted criteria.</p>
<p>I realize that Starbucks has a system for distributing free drink cards when things go wrong, etc. That’s not what I am talking about. </p>
<p>Anyway, didn’t mean to derail; just wanted to explain what I meant by my previous comment. </p>
<p>Good example. They can also give it to you for free figuring you’ll tip more and not actually doing the charge but don’t ring up thing. It’s a very common occurrence in the bar business. Liquor is expensive. And, the customer can’t really know. Also, most are drunk and don’t really care.</p>
<p>Thank you for the thoughtful responses. This happened at a DSW shoe store, where almost everyone in the store is within view, although the store is big. No one was nearby and no one was looking as if they had lost something. I went to the cashiers and asked for the manager. I had to wait awhile for her to come from the back and when she came out he was huffing and puffing and apologized, saying they were making a big mess back there and she was helping. I told her I’d found some money. She smiled, laughed, and did the happy dance. The reason for the mess in the back was they were going through all the day’s trash looking for the money that an employee had lost. The employee was back there, long past her quitting time, hoping it had accidentally been thrown away. The manager then told me to KEEP the money, she would cover the employee. I told her no, I really just wanted the money to go to the owner. She went dashing to the back with it and the owner came out and thanked me. The end. </p>
<p>Just for the record, I keep all the money I find in the washing machine or dryer.</p>
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Even more off-topic, but this reminded me of the song “Taylor the Latte Boy.” First recorded, I think, by Kristen Chenoweth, but there are many funny versions of it on YouTube.</p>
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<p>No, and I’ve never known anyone who has. If it was valuable to you, you wouldn’t lose it. </p>
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<p>Doesn’t seem very effective. I tried once at Taco Bell when they didn’t give me the receipt (they were offering a free drink if you got no receipt). They then gave me the receipt but they gave me a drink anyway. All it did for Taco Bell was cost them a free drink. I don’t understand how it’s going to work. </p>
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You must not get around much. If the wristband on your Patek Philippe breaks while you’re at Lord’s, don’t come running to me.</p>
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<p>Really? That statement sounds awful judge-y. Are you sure you aren’t a parent? That sounds like something my mean grandma used to say.</p>
<p>My H lost his wedding ring in the parking lot at his office. YEATS later, one of his co-workers found it and he got it back because of the engraving. It WAS and is valuable to him and us, it is just that it was hazardous for him to wear it when he was working with wires and electrical things as it increased his risk of injury to his fingers. We are still happily married decades later and I keep his ring in a safe place as it no longer fits him.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t keep the money. Then again I rarely find any anyway.</p>
<p>There was this one time freshman year (I"m a senior now) that I was in Theater Arts. It was the production class and let’s just say the majority of the class didn’t take it seriously. One day our teacher told us to clean the auditorium. A lot of people just scoffed and didn’t clean but I did. I like my school and I wanted the auditorium to look beautiful. I thoroughly cleaned under the seats and the floor. Midway through, I found a 100 dollar bill. My friend who was with me was like just take it. It was a reward for actually listening to the teacher and cleaning. I thought long and hard about it. I mean I was in 9th grade and this was 100 dollars for crying out loud. But I ended up giving it to my teacher.</p>
<p>But I really could have used that for an AP test… ;)</p>