What do you do when you find money on the street? Do you keep it? Do you turn it in? That was the dilemma facing Margaret Symons as she was walking in a parking lot in Target. She found some money, and it wasn’t chump change either. It was $1,000. Being a good citizen, she brought it back to the store. Target told her that if no one claimed the money within thirty days, she would be allowed to keep it. The store would hold on to it until then.

Thirty days later, Symons was back in the store, inquiring about the fate of the money. No one had claimed it, she was told, so the store had decided to add it to its petty cash. She would get none of it. The policy, she was told, of letting the finders keep lost money was specifically for smaller sums, and not for large amounts. Seeing that she was getting nowhere with the store, she reported the incident to ABC 7.

The news outlet contacted Target, which confirmed that this was indeed store policy. ABC then contacted the San Jose Police Department, which said it would have returned the money to the finder. Police added that no one had reported losing such a large sum over the past thirty days. When confronted with this difference in approach, Target agreed to give Ms. Symons the money. There is, of course,  a lesson to be learned here: If you do find a large sum of money, notify the police.
Read More at ABC 7.