I was helping my friends kids do a park clean up and one of them found a large wad of cash (less than $200). I told the one who found it that I need to check with the police before she can have it, just in case it belongs to someone in need.
But is that a thing? I didn’t want to say she could keep it right away because I want to set a good example. But it isn’t a ton of money so I assume the police would not be interested. So what do?
From your use of the £ I’m going to assume you are not American. America has legalized theft if it’s the police doing the taking. Look up civil forfeiture. You turn over money to cops, they’ll just say they “think” it was involved in crime and pocket it.
The cops won’t even bother with civil forfeiture. There’s a court case (a shitty one, more of a hearing, but it’s there) involved in that and the prosecutors will roll their eyes for $200. They’ll just put it in an evidence locker, put up a notice in a newspaper that no one will ever see, then 30 days later say that no one claimed it and then they pocket it.
Not sure about now, but in 98 the hostess at the restaurant I worked at found ~$200 and turned it into the police. 3 months later, no one claimed it and she got it back.
Fair point, and yeah, I’m in the UK.