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Man fined after returning more than £10,000 in cash.

JayOwl

JayOwl

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http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/Ma...hoofinanceuk-3328382006.html#mwpphu-container

You'd think that finding more than £10,000 in cash, in a bag next to a cash machine, and returning it to its rightful owners would be applauded. But for one man, all that it resulted in was a £300 fine.


Robert Adams, 54, saw the bag full of money next to a cash machine with Chase Bank's logo on the side. Instead of taking advantage, the resident of Arlington Heights, Illinois, returned it to the bank in question.
But he made a mistake, by giving police false information about exactly where he found it.
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I was reading through yahoo, and I found this. I see lots of shitty news stories, but this one really annoyed me. If the guy returned 10k to the bank, then he should be given a reward, not a fine. He had the money, so where he found it was completely irrelevant.
If this is what you get for being a good honest citizen, why bother? He should have kept the money it seems- the only problem being he was caught on CCTV.

Thoughts?
 
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He shouldn't feel sorry about anything. The police should learn better PR, and the bank should pay his fine. If I were a customer who had an account with that bank, I'd withdraw my money and close my account, citing concerns that the bank cared less about the protection of my money than a concerned citizen. I'd do or say something about the police, but then, it wouldn't matter anyway.
 
Sometimes, the police have way too little to do if they need to fine this guy for returning money.

Arlington Heights isn't that far from me, but I have no idea if this is normal stupidity for them or not.

^ As far as closing one's Chase account, it really wouldn't hurt or bother them at all, unless a whole lot of people went in there together to do it.
 
Ar-Pharazon said:
Sometimes, the police have way too little to do if they need to fine this guy for returning money.

Arlington Heights isn't that far from me, but I have no idea if this is normal stupidity for them or not.

^ As far as closing one's Chase account, it really wouldn't hurt or bother them at all, unless a whole lot of people went in there together to do it.
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Oh, I agree, but it would feel better. The police side I wouldn't be able to do anything about, as they could get away with a lot worse and not care, but at least with the bank, I can give them less money.
 
No good deed goes unpunished.

The fine should be waived. In the absence of that, the bank should pay it, and give him a little bonus besides.
 
Jaytrek said:
He should have kept the money it seems- the only problem being he was caught on CCTV.

Thoughts?
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'He was captured on CCTV picking up the money, leaving the shop and getting into his car, and then charged with lying in a police report — resulting in his fine'

for all we know he did consider keeping it, then changed his mind. Who wouldn't be tempted?

Lying about part of the story makes you look more guilty than you are. Proving otherwise costs police time.
 
Did where he found the money matter? He found it and returned it, the details are irrelevant because no crime was committed. Charging the guy $300 for mucking the truth seems sort of counter to the whole process of being a good citizen. He could have simply kept the money and been in better shape.
 
Isn't 10% considered a normal finders fee?

That would mean this guy is still £700 richer than before he made the find...
 
Trekker4747 said:
Did where he found the money matter? He found it and returned it, the details are irrelevant because no crime was committed. Charging the guy $300 for mucking the truth seems sort of counter to the whole process of being a good citizen. He could have simply kept the money and been in better shape.
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He removed property from the store that wasn't his. No matter the good intention.

If the police had intercepted him en-route and he said 'I was only looking after it' would that seem believable?

Of course where and when matters. If you said Tuesday in the east of Town when it was Monday in the west, it might result on the wrong person being sacked. The wrong CCTV would be checked. If you really did just find it somewhere you couldn't rule out criminals dumped it intending to return later.

Yes the bank should pay his fine, but the police aren't wrong to impose it.
 
This is dumb all around. He was dumb for lying to the police, the police were dumb for not making an exception in this case. However, really, don't lie to the police. Nothing good can come from even small lies.
 
Ar-Pharazon said:
Arlington Heights isn't that far from me, but I have no idea if this is normal stupidity for them or not.
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Hey, me too!

Regarding the guy, isn't it weird to anyone else that he left Walgreens with the money? I mean he walked out of a store with cash that wasn't his. I don't think he should have been fined, but this is bad thinking at best.

I would have told several Walgreens employees and called the local Chase bank in their presence to make sure they didn't make off with the money themselves.

I'd never want to take on the responsibility of holding onto the money myself. There's always the chance of being blamed for something. What if someone had already taken some of the money?
 
Lol yeah i read this in news today, utter madness, what is this world becoming
 
J. Allen said:
He shouldn't feel sorry about anything. The police should learn better PR, and the bank should pay his fine. If I were a customer who had an account with that bank, I'd withdraw my money and close my account, citing concerns that the bank cared less about the protection of my money than a concerned citizen. I'd do or say something about the police, but then, it wouldn't matter anyway.
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Well if it makes you feel any better, nearly everyone I know who had a Chase account changed banks in the past few months because of the new fees they created. It seems to be a trend these days. :lol:
 
Aren't there always phones attached to ATMs that put you directly in touch with the bank? If he walked off with the money, then he probably was tempted to keep it. He either overcame temptation or realized he was on camera-- but neither overcoming temptation nor wising up is a crime. He did the right thing and the fine should have been waived.
 
Rarewolf said:
He removed property from the store that wasn't his. No matter the good intention.
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If I drop my wallet in a store and someone picks it up and doesn't return it they wouldn't get into trouble for stealing my wallet. It was property that wasn't his but it was also lost property and, at-that, property that wasn't the store's so he didn't steal something so much as he "found" it.

By the way, I cannot be the only that pictures this as the old cartoon trope of a giant burlap sack with a big "$" printed on it, right?
 
Trekker4747 said:
Did where he found the money matter? He found it and returned it, the details are irrelevant because no crime was committed.
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However relevant (or not) that information is, the man still committed a crime by lying about it in a police report.

Charging the guy $300 for mucking the truth seems sort of counter to the whole process of being a good citizen.
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He's the one who committed the crime. It's the good citizen's own fault he's in trouble to begin with. Though if it's just the severity of the consequences you are talking about, that is something you can argue.

He could have simply kept the money and been in better shape.
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Or rather, he could have just told the police the truth to begin with.

While the amount he was fined may or may not be a bit harsh given the circumstances, remember that it was the good citizen who committed the crime in the first place.
 
BTW, for all those talking about whether or not he considered keeping the money, that doesn't matter. He lied to the police. The question is whether his lie should be something he should be charged with. That's about it.
 
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