h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There were two new pieces of post on the kitchen table when I got home yesterday. One was printed and looked official - it was the first of my international train tickets .

The second I almost threw away as junk mail. It was a completely blank envelope - not addressed, no return address or anything written on it at all. But it was a white DL envelope (the sort that takes a piece of A4 paper folded in three), and that sort of junk mail is usually in a larger brown envelope. And the envelope had clearly in the past been folded up, to fit inside another envelope. So I decided it wasn't junk, and opened it.

It contained £150 in cash. And nothing else.

I *know* I have not had a conversation with *anybody* in the last few weeks which included the other person saying 'and I'll drop the money round to you'. My husband and children are equally baffled. My husband occasionally helps a friend with landscaping work but if any cash changes hands it's not more than £40 and it happens there and then. And he hasn't done any of that sort of work for several weeks, and his friend was round at the weekend anyway.

I don't currently keep the accounts for any of the organisations I'm involved with. I'll check with the treasurers to make sure that no money is expected but I'm fairly confident it isn't.

I can't think what else to do.

So:
Any ideas of other people I should talk to?
If I can't trace where it's from and what it's for, should I just keep it?

Mol

Ask the police?

Hmm, all sorts of things come to mind.

Suggestion:
- Take it and the envelope to your bank, pay it in to your account - getting them to note it & ask for their comments.
- Or take it to CAB (Citizen's Advice Bureau) & ask for their comments.
One or other of them will have access to advice.
...
Draw (some of?) it out straight away
...
Enjoy.

... Or yes, of course, Bel - ask the police

Oh, *that's* where I left it

It may have been put through the wrong door. Ask the neighbours (carefully).

A similar thing happened when I was a student, but we had a clue - the money was wrapped in a sheet of carbon copy paper. Our expert analysis of which revealed two pieces of information - a telephone number and a name.

We called the number, which turned out to be a solicitors, and asked them if they knew the name. They asked us how we got their number, and they must have believed us, or at least considered the possibility that we may be telling the truth, as they got in touch with the bearer of the name, who got in touch with the student they knew, who came and knocked on our door. He lived across the road, and the person sending the money had got the house number wrong.

So, can any useful information be gleaned from the envelope? Handwriting, area postal stamp, slight smudge in the corner, scent?

Other than that, yeah, ask the police for advice.


Geggs

Dust it for fingerprints?

Write to Father xmas, asking him to write back to you if he made a mistake, and if he don't get a letter then spend it?

Mind you, could be like that film - shallow graves - you might get the local mafia coming round and asking for it back...

sprout

Thanks all.

There is no stamp or mark or anything on the envelope. And as we've all handled it I think we might struggle to fingerprint it now

I've texted my mum in case it's some family thing they've forgotten to tell me about.

And I've thought about how I could carefully ask my friends and neighbours (ie by not specifying the amount).

I am a bit worried about stirring up some sort of previously unsuspected local mafia. Nothing seems more unlikely (if you could see where I live you would know what I mean). But then ... you never know, do you? There's a non-emergency number for the police, perhaps I should let them know.

Mol

Why the police? No crime has been committed. The money is yours unless someone has a plausible claim. I would ask (carefully) your neighbours. I would do all I reasonably could, with whatever evidence you can collect, and it sounds like that is nothing at the moment, to restore this money to its rightful owner for some reasonable time - give it a month - whatever. After that the money is yours.

If you take it to the police and they do anything at all they will spend more than £150 in their investigations and waste your life filling in forms.

You don't need to tell the neighbours it's cash. Just say "Something of value was put through my door". Don't tell them it's in an envelope either.

If this money isn't yours or your families, it has probably been put through your door by mistake. Take it to the police. They won't spend money investigating.

If you keep it knowing that it isn't yours, it COULD be 'theft by finding'.

If anyone knocks on your door asking about it you point them at the police.

If it doesn't find a home within a period of time it gets to be yours I believe. Just get a reciept from the police station.

PP

>>If you keep it knowing that it isn't yours, it COULD be 'theft by finding'.

Really? Is there a precedent for that?

I can't help thinking that's money for a pressing bill or something, and it got put through the wrong door.

Hope you find the rightful owner.

If you find out it's somebody going about playing secret samaritan, do send them over to my house, won't you?

In Ireland, what the police would do is make a note of it, put the envelope with the cash in a safe and hold onto it for a year. They wouldn't investigate or advertise it. If somebody came within the year looking for it and had a reasonable claim, they'd get it. Otherwise you'd get to keep it after the year. Wouldn't cost the police more than about 5 minutes work.

Gnomon's advice seems very sound.

You didn't "find" this money, it was given to you, so you can forget any nonsense about "theft by finding". Even if you had found it out in the open in a public place rather than in your home, its unmarked and untraceable nature mean there's no reasonable method by which you might establish ownership as a precursor to returning it. This was established in law in the cases of R. v. Shea (1856) and R. v. Christopher (1858), and others.

So in law - it's yours. Keep it. Bank it. Spend it. Whatever you like.

Of course, you may have some personal moral problem with simply following the letter of the law. That money belonged to someone who didn't necessarily intend you to have it. You may perhaps believe that merely being so stultifyingly stupid that they post cash through someone's door without bothering to take ten seconds to write "cash for windows" or "money for Derek" or "Here you go, regards, Harry" or ANYTHING AT ALL on the envelope doesn't mean they deserve to lose £100. (Can you guess what I think?)

If you really are that soft-hearted and considerate towards the thick, I'd suggest sticking the envelope in your airing cupboard for a month wrapped in a towel you'll use eventually. The dolt who posted it might come round looking for it, in which case you can return it. (I'd remove £10 from it as dumbass tax before you put it away). If after a month there've been no inquiries, bank it.

Really - it's not your responsibility to go chasing round after people this numb and vague.

I'm impressed by your galactic hitchhiker's solution to the problem. The airing cupboard - that's where your towel is

<>>If you keep it knowing that it isn't yours, it COULD be 'theft by finding'.

Really? Is there a precedent for that?>

There is law relating to 'theft by finding'. In essence if a lost item is picked up and kept by someone who knows it isn't theirs, it is theft (by finding). Reasonable steps have to be taken to find the owner as a defence.

Hoovooloo refers to case law (and it is acknowledged that case law is bad law).

It really does no good to speculate about how the money got there and whether your poster is 'stultifyingly stupid'. They may be suffering from dementia. Who knows.

If it were me, I would rather play safe and take it to the police.

About a year ago, I found a similar amount blowing around at the side of a busy dual carriageway. Handed it to the police and it was returned to a grateful owner who had left her handbag on top of her car (there were a few bits of lady stuff around but I didn't notice a handbag). We all have lapses from time to time.

PP

Well. Having made some discreet local enquiries and got nowhere (mind you the neighbours are out so there's still potential), I emailed our local PCSO this afternoon *just in case* it relates the drug problem we apparently have in our village.

And I'll keep you posted.

Hopefully on how I get to spend it. I mean - way hay! I've already had hours of fun thinking of all the different ways I *could* spend it. But I do feel I ought to make some effort to find out where it really ought to be. This is a small community and it's conceivable it was meant for me in some sort of offical capacity (one that I don't actually know about, but still).

Mol