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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Government keepers, finders weepers

A teenager found $2000 in an envelope at a shopping center. To her credit, she contacted the bank and the police who attempted to find the owner. After three months they failed to locate anyone so the city told her

"We appreciate your honesty," said Dallas police spokesman Senior Cpl. Kevin Janse. "We're going to put the money to good use. It's not going to be wasted, but put to good use for the City of Dallas."

or as they described someone else in the same situation

I hope she takes some solace in the fact that the money will be put to use in Dallas in the most efficient way we know how

Translation: Thanks little girl, that will pay for a few nice coffee makers for our offices.

Apparently the city changed their policy two years ago to assume that anything left lying around the city was their property by default. Most other cities in the area follow the common practice that if you can’t find the owner, the finder gets to keep it. This actually encourages people to turn in found property.

Lesson learned: When in Dallas, please do report that you found lost property, but don’t actually hand it over to anyone except the actual owner.

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