What Would You Do? Money Left Behind in the Self Checkout Lane
The subject matter I post here at CleverDude falls on the lighter side of personal finance, but today we’re going to tip the scale even a little further and have a little fun based upon an experience I had at Walmart over the weekend.
I’m a habitual self checkout lane junkie. When I only have a few items I make it a personal challenge to scan my items, pay for my purchase and pass the person that used the station before me on the way out the door. When I have a cart full of groceries I scan and pack my groceries with such efficiency that I frequently have people tell me I should work there.
On Saturday afternoon I rolled up to a self checkout station and began the process of scanning and bagging my items. After I had filled a few bags, I happened to glance downward and notice some money had been left behind in the change slot. $22 to be exact. It had been several minutes since the previous users had left, so they were nowhere to be found (not that I remembered what they looked like anyway).
Several options materialized in my brain as I continued to scan my items.
- I could simply hand the money to the employee that was overseeing the self checkout stations and tell him what had happened.
- I could immediately pick up the money and put it in my pocket.
- I could wait until I paid for my groceries, and then take the money left there combined with my own change.
Obviously, the correct and moral option is #1. But the forces of evil were strong in Walmart that day as I was giving serious thought to taking the money. They say the test of a man’s true character is what they do when nobody is looking. Fortunately for me on that day I didn’t have to test my character too much. I remembered that there are cameras everywhere within Walmart. If the rightful owners of the money came back they could watch the security cameras and see who took the money. I’m in Walmart almost everyday, and I’m almost positive I would be caught.
I stopped scanning my items and gave the money to the Walmart employee.
I would like to think that I would have eventually taken the same action regardless of whether I remembered the cameras recording the action within the store at every angle imaginable. But who knows, even people with strong character make mistakes.
If I ask what you would have done, everyone would invariably say they would have given the money to the employee. But I’m going to ask you a different question.
Is there any set of circumstances that WOULD lead you to have taken the money? Don’t be shy now, this is only a blog post for fun, nobody’s going to judge. 🙂
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Brought to you courtesy of Brock
Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children, Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.
I would ABSOLUTELY turn it in, no question. At first, I thought for a split second – what if the person never came back, what if the Walmart employee isn’t honest, etc. But that is not the issue. You can only do YOUR “right thing” not anybody else’s and turning it in is the right thing to do. I have been the loser of money, and this is exactly what I wish had happened in the cases where it did not. $22 is not a life-altering amount of money to lose, and certainly not worth selling a piece of your soul.
I found $3 in a parking lot and I have it in the console of my car. I plan to hand it to the next homeless guy I see at the stop light
I’m not sure what I would have done. I might have hung around for a bit to see if anybody came back, though my guess is it would probably take someone quite a bit of time until they realized it’s missing.
15 years or so ago, I found a $20 in the ATM, back when they spit the money out into a little cubby. I kept it.
Over the summer I was on a bike ride and spotted money on the ground. It was very dirty and had been there awhile, and in that case there was no way to consider turning it into anybody, so it became ‘take the family out for ice cream’ money.
I would definitely look around outside to see if anyone appeared to be looking for it, searching their purse, or wallet etc. I would love to say that I’d absolutely turn it in the customer service but I truly don’t know. If there was no way to identify to whom it belonged, I’m not sure the customer service people would be able to get it to the right customers either. How many people would know the exact amount of change they had coming, in order to put in a claim. So my answer is a great big “I don’t know”.
I agree with your actions, and would like to think I would have done the same. Depending on the scenario, I might be reluctant to hand the money over to a store employee – after all, they could pocket the money themselves.
No question about it, turn the money in immediately, what the debate about?
Yikes, I don’t know. I would have done the same but I would have had a serious moral issue with it. Call me a pessimist (I call myself a realist) but there is a 95% chance that the Walmart employee is just going to keep it. They have no way of tracking down the person who left it!
I would have taken the money. Because for having been on the other side (the person forgetting it!), I would not have gone back, the chances that the money was still there were too slim. And if I didn’t see the money I would never have asked an employee, just walked away again.
That’s a tough one Brock. I once found a lot of money in a wallet on the street outside my branch (I worked in a bank). I kept it in my drawer and asked all my customers to let me know if they or someone they knew had lost it. Eventually someone came in to claim it and I felt really good for doing the right thing.
@Cathie – you’re a very honest person, and I like your statement that $22 isn’t worth “selling your soul.” With that strong of a response I assume that there is no set of circumstances in which you would have kept the money. Kudos to you!
@Guy – that’s a GREAT idea. Yours is a little different situation, but I love the idea of taking money found and giving it away. Karma will be your friend, Guy. 🙂
@moneybeagle – I think I actually understand what happened that day in Walmart and I don’t think the people just forgot to grab their cash. When I was done with my transaction it was supposed to spit out $4 and change. It dropped 2 one dollar bills and then paused for almost a full minute. My guess is the people before me got some cash back and it spit out some of the money, but paused before spitting out the rest. They grabbed the money during the pause and left not counting it. Who knows if they ever figured out where they “lost” the money.
In your situation, the $20 found on the ground couldn’t be turned in anywhere, so at least you shared it with your family.
Thanks for sharing your experiences!
@kathy – I understand where you’re coming from, and that’s exactly what was going through my mind. Although I love what Cathie said in a previous comment – that we can’t worry about what happens afterwards, we can only do our right thing. I think I’ll remember that comment if this sort of thing ever happens again. Thanks for your honest thoughts!
@Tyler – I thought of that as well…I saw the employee put it in a special drawer at the station that oversees the self checkout lanes. But there’s nothing to stop him from just pocketing it later either.
@James – Sure, that’s what you say now. 🙂 All kidding aside, the point of my article is to get people thinking about whether they really have the morals that everything thinks they have, or that they should have. Are there any circumstances under which I’d keep the money? Before I read Cathie’s comment I think that if I knew there weren’t any cameras I would seriously consider it (just being honest). But Cathie’s comment is gonna just stick in my brain.
@Daisy – that’s true, the employee could keep it. BUT, my fear was that the people would come back and say they must have left money there. Let’s say that happens, and they pull out the video of right after they left. They see me take the money, and hand it to the employee. Now the employee would be on the hook to explain where the money went too. Maybe I’m overthinking this whole thing…it’s an interesting debate though.
@Pauline – We have our first money taker! Now I’ve got Cathie on one shoulder, and Pauline on the other while I’m standing in Walmart staring at an abandoned $22. 🙂 Thanks for your honest answer!
@robert – that’s an awesome “feel good” story. I bet the person who came in was VERY relieved to have found their wallet. As a person who has lost a wallet (with a non-trivial amount of cash in it), I know that feeling!
I doubt I’d have second thoughts about handing the money over to the employee, its not mine and keeping it would be almost tantamount to stealing.
{If I was really broke though, I think I’d keep the windfall – call it, answered prayers, or something :)}
@Simon – Being broke is the kind of circumstances I’m talking about that could make someone take the money. Thanks for your honesty!
When I find money like this and there is no one around I will take it and then put it in the church offering the next Sunday.
My guess is that if you were to turn it in, the cashier would just take it for themselves…
I would’ve taken the money and given it to charity, the chances of the money being returned to the correct person are incredible slim. The chances of something good being done with it if given to charity, much higher.
@moneysaving – great idea, I’d definitely do that if I found it on the ground, but I’m afraid of getting in trouble since I know I was being taped.
@William Charles – I agree the chances of it finding its owner was slim. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Finders keepers!