Found ! What Would You Do ?

[babylin]

Pulling in next to the shopping cart return corral today at the local grocery with my wife along, I noticed a Michelob case box under a returned cart. Sure enough it was FULL of cold beer! So it quickly ended up in my car trunk. My wife said it was stealing. I contended that it was lost and therefore "finder's keepers." ( BTW, no security cameras).

In the past I've had the fantacy of finding a full diaper bag in a like situation. So my question hypothetically, what if it had been a new pack of Attends or Depends left in the shopping cart lower rack?

I guess I'm ethically challenged. Was this stealing? Should I have just left it there for someone else to claim? Maybe the poor loser coming back? Or turned it into the store? What would you do if you "found" diapers?

HAPPINESS IS WEARING COTTON DIAPERS

[naughty_baby]

Ooo I would have taken them. Although yes its stealing, but they left them lol. Just think have you ever left anything somewhere before to go back and find it still there, nah most people would take things like that lol. Im not a thief but if it was left then someone else would have just taken it

[enfant]

I think if you make a good faith effort to see if someone comes back for it, it's not stealing. I remember once finding a $20 bill; I waited for fifteen minutes or so to see if I saw anyone walking around looking for a lost bill, then I figured there was no chance of finding the owner, and kept the money.

On the other hand, I once dropped something off the back of my bike while riding through a supermarket parking lot, and I heard it fall, but didn't immediately realize what the sound was. No more than a minute later I figured it out what had happened, turned around and went back, and it was already gone. That seemed like stealing: Whoever got it must have taken off with it as soon as my back was turned.

I think most likely if you hadn't taken the case of beer home, somebody else would've, or maybe the store would've taken it back and sold it again. Either way, the owner wouldn't have gotten it back. You should have looked around to see if the owner was coming back for it, but other than that, I think you're in the clear.

[spoonchicken]

Finders, Keepers....unless the person is right there. Property abandoned like that is up for grabs. I'm not a cop or a lawyer, but to the best of my layman's legal knowledge, that's basically what Customary American Law says about it. Therefore, it's not stealing.

[BabyDavey]

I don't know. Perhaps you should put up posters to see if anyone would claim what you had found...

Just kidding - If you had stuck around in your car for a few minutes watching to see if anyone was looking around for it, but otherwise, it's a gray area - I probably would have done the same thing.

[phogendpf]

Ya..Put up posters saying what everyone was yelling the night of july 4th here. FREE BEER!!!!

and no, if its in a cart in the parking lot and no one is around, it is finders keepers.

[Diaper666]

i figure if its lost money like say a 20.00 bill then its fair game since it was out side the store and since your case its bear its not stealing i would say being as some one left it outside near wear you parked or what ever its fair game being as its not on the store sidewalk or inside the store its fair game man hell think about it you would have every drunk in town if you put up a lost beer case poster man its not even funny any more man

[forsites91]

I actually work at a supermarket, and once or twice a day i have to collect carts. well in the past 4 months alone ive found: a purse, a wallet, and a perfect conditiion iPhone. and of course i wouldnt take those types of things, so i returned them, the people with the wallet and purse both gave me about ten dollars for turning it in. and the iPhone im kicking myself for turning it in because it was some basketball player who live in the area, he actually parked in the "loading area" (not supposed to park there, they tow for that) with his Range Rover, all he did was wave to me as he got in his car (he knew i was the one who found it)

[sarah_ab]

so when finding products that can be easily traced back to the original owner such as a cell phone, a wallet, purse, even other electronic equiptment such as a camera which has pictures the owner can identify on it. However, when it comes to abandoned perishables in the parking lot, i dont feel its 'wrong' to take them. We once saw a 24 pack of toilet paper in a shopping cart going into the store, and coming out of the store 15 minutes later it was still there, so yes we took it.

In your case it was alcohol.. if you are over 21, then i say you did the store a service, for if someone under 21 got a hold of that beer, then drank it, than got in some sort of trouble, the store could potentially be held responsible for having a controlled substance just sitting in its parking lot. However if you are under 21, then you yourself broke the law just by putting it into you car.

[DavidMW]

I think if you make a good faith effort to see if someone comes back for it, it's not stealing. I remember once finding a $20 bill; I waited for fifteen minutes or so to see if I saw anyone walking around looking for a lost bill, then I figured there was no chance of finding the owner, and kept the money.

On the other hand, I once dropped something off the back of my bike while riding through a supermarket parking lot, and I heard it fall, but didn't immediately realize what the sound was. No more than a minute later I figured it out what had happened, turned around and went back, and it was already gone. That seemed like stealing: Whoever got it must have taken off with it as soon as my back was turned.

I think most likely if you hadn't taken the case of beer home, somebody else would've, or maybe the store would've taken it back and sold it again. Either way, the owner wouldn't have gotten it back. You should have looked around to see if the owner was coming back for it, but other than that, I think you're in the clear.

It's stealing. Forgetting something isn't the same as abandoning it. Abandoning something is a deliberate action, and it's highly unlikely that someone had second thoughts about their beer purchase and simply chose to leave it behind at the cart return.

At a business, a good faith effort to return unidentified merchandise to its purchaser is to turn it in to store management/customer service. When the person who accidentally left it behind realizes what happened, that's usually where they'll check when they return to the store. It's not like many people approach customer service about forgotten beer in hopes of there coincidentally being some, and the actual purchaser will at least have a receipt showing the purchase price.

The problem with waiting for a few minutes for someone to return to collect it in a situation like this is that the person may not realize that they forgot it until they get home, which could be after a few more errands, a long drive home, and carrying in and putting away the groceries. The person may then call the store to see if someone's turned it in before making the drive back there (my folks used to own a restaurant, and it was not uncommon for people to call in trying to track down something that they left behind somewhere earlier that day). But it could easily be an hour or more before the purchaser realized their mistake.

If you didn't pay for it, then it is clearly not yours to take. If your actions prevent its owner from coming back to retrieve their purchase, then it is stealing. And the possibility that someone else might instead steal it is certainly no justification for you doing so.

[pctrasher]

I have to say that it's not theft. I agree with the situation of a wallet and such (including money) that it should be returned fully intact if the owner can be reached. If they can't be contacted, and it's a wallet or a piece of 'identity' then it should be dropped off at the local police dept. Otherwise in this case of beer, it's a gift from the person who left it. Instead of you doing a good deed to them and dropping it off in the store to be claimed later, they are doing a good deed to you by giving you hours of alcoholic fun. And I say they struck first with the 'good deed' so why not be nice and accept the good deed. So when they return, if they return, they'll say "I hope whoever took it is having a blast drinking my beer!", and I'm sure you are. It might be a bit different with a bag of diapers, but it's the same breakdown.

Now as far as morals go, I'm probably not the best person to talk to. I've got the voice in my head telling me to leave it or return it, but there's a louder voice with a bit more persuasion telling me to look around to see if someone is looking for it (if confronted, or I see someone looking for it, I'd give it up), then it's mine (unless it's a piece of identity, eg: wallet, purse)

[Sophie ♥]

I'm in complete favor of calling this incident "stealing" but i'm sure i would have done the same thing... If i actually saw the person drop it or someone looking for something, oh i would return it immidiately. But i do believe in the "finders keepers" rule, despite the fact it is technically theft.

As for the owner never getting their product back, at the grocery store i work at if a costumer comes in saying "this was never in the cart" we just give them a new one. It happens alot with the expensive stuff... i dont know if that's because people just come back and say they never got it to get more, or if they only come back for expensive stuff as to not waste the money... but either way, our store doesn't fight the costumer on it.

-Sophie

[Magical Trevor]

The situtation described in the OP is stealing but you have to remember that ethics are arbitrary and that society would be much better off if we were not bound by petty morality. Ok, so I would be better off if I were not bound by petty morality, everyone else would have to put up with theft and vandalism but what doesn't kill you makes you as weak as a kitten and easier to rule over.

[Baby Bethany]

To my mind stealing is taking anything that doesn't belong to you. If I could return it, say I had seen the person drop it, I would. Or if it had the persons contact details I would contact them (I once found a handbag with all of the women's credit cards, mobile phone, money etc. I contacted her by dialing 'home' on her phone and leaving a message.)

If it was just left, like that case of beer, I would take it..............but yes, it is still stealing.

Beth

[ajc2000]

It would depend what it was... lol

If it was something that I did not like I think I would take it back in to the shop.

But if it was something I drinked I would put it my car and wait 5-10 mins to see if anyone was coming back for it. If not, go do my shopping with out the need to buy beer.

[diaperwearntigger]

I feel that it is stealing and I would have returned it to the store. I would think someone would notice it missing when they got home and would return to the store looking for it. I guess I look at it this way, if it was me who forgot something, I wouldn't want someone else to keep it and would be upset if someone did. I would hope they would have done the right thing and returned it to the store, in hopes I would return back for it....but then again... the world doesn't think like that so much anymore...

[rusty pins]

I think the prudent thing to do in this situation would have been to take the case of beer back into the store to the service desk or one of the cashiers if it was a smaller store. Explain that you noticed it under a cart in the parking lot and figured someone with a load of groceries must have forgotten to look below when loading their trunk. It's possible that a checker or bagger will remember that person either by name if it's a smaller store with a regular clientel or if that person should come back looking to see if anyone turned in a case of beer found in the parking lot. I often notice that items like milk, orange juice, bleach and laundry detergent in large jugs are put underneith the cart by the person bagging the groceries even though I or my family never put them down there as we were shopping. There have been times when we got home and discovered missing groceries and after returning to the store with our recipt we discovered that they had been turned in by someone. People who are retired on a budget or are having a hard time making ends meet really feel upset about paying for something and finding out they didn't get it. It dosn't matter if it was the fault of someone working for the store or a mistake made by the customer themselves. It can be upsetting to someone and really ruin the rest of their day or even week. What a relief it was when we had gone back to the store and found that someone had turned in our missing bag! It really changes your outlook for the rest of the day from upset to relief! In this case even if the person never came back looking for his beer, at least you wouldn't have taken away his oppertnity to possibly recover the beer he had paid for if you had taken the beer back into the store and explained the situation. I don't know if I could enjoy drinking the beer knowing someone out there is feeling upset by paying for it and not getting it.

[sarah_ab]

I work at a store, and we get loads of merchandise returned to us that people left in carts, some are still in the bags with the reciept of purchase.

Just to be clear, when something is brought back into the store, there is no way to look up who paid for it, even with a credit or debit card. Our system will let us look up a duplicate reciept but that does not show the name or anything of the person. Some stores will show ur last name on the receipt if you use the card. However, in the case of the beer, once it leaves the store, if it is brught back into the store, and turned it, it cannot be resold and will be thrown away.

Like i said i look at it this way, at least it was someone over 21 who found the beer. Because seriously, if someone under 21 had found it, drank it and got in some sort of accident, or in some sort of troulbe, you bet your butt the family would sure the grocery store for having alcohol sitting around in their parking lot, regardless of how absurd the situation was.

but if you feel that bad about it, buy a case of beer, at a adiffernt store, go back to that store and say you found it, this is one of those ethics questions that everyone is going to feel differently about.. its up to you to figure out what to do.

[BriGuy]

You found it and it was COLD??? Way to go!!!! Thats the karmic gods smiling down on you. Enjoy your frosty malted beverage and be thankful that your good works in the past have rewarded you so!

~Brian

[babylin]

O K !! I'm ethically challenged ! But, my question was: what if the package left in the shopping cart were diapers? Like your favorite diapers and amazingly, in your size ? I suppose it's easy to say "Well, it was beer, and not even my brand." But, hypothetically, your favorite diapers.? Store policy would be to throw them away if the cart boy found them and brought them back in. I didn't have a spare hour to "watch first" to see if anyone returned looking for them. Diapers lost------- diapers found. Would you have returned diapers to the store?

HAPPINESS IS WEARING COTTON DIAPERS

[forsites91]

food and drink returned from a parking lot or with a receipt is always thrown away. its a shame theres not a way SOMEBODY can keep it besides going dumpster diving

[sarah_ab]

well look at it this way, food products would have been thrown out had they been returned to the store, however diapers can be put back onto the shelf...

personally i would have taken them... but thats not to say its still nto stealing, the question is, can you live with yourself by taking them? (course thats just the selfish questions, there's also the whole, what if it was your grandmother who got home to find out she left her briefs at the store, and ended up wetting herself on the way to go back to get them because she was out in the first place.... only to go back and find they were gone.... just to put it into worst case scenario perspective) lol

[Magical Trevor]

You should turn it into the store but it's not big deal if you steal. Ethics and morality are arbitrary and just get in the way.

[Dill_Pickle]

You should turn it into the store but it's not big deal if you steal. Ethics and morality are arbitrary and just get in the way.

The morality of some may be arbitrary, but ethics is not...it is based on sacrifices from the individual for the long-term good of the whole society.

Be careful, as what goes around has this amazing tendency to come around -- in other words, do unto others.

Incidentally, I resent the higher prices I have to pay at the store and the gas pump because YOU are stealing. Not that 10 or 20 dollars worth of beer is all that big in the larger scheme, but think how happy you would make someone if you did return that beer to the store. Also, I might not say anything to you if I was watching, but it might change my behavior later when I find you broken down on the side of the road or in some other situation where a little help would go a long way. Turning in that beer might also get you the benefit of the doubt when the store manager is wondering whether you need a free ride in a police car.

[sarah_ab]

Course turning in that beer only adds to waste in our consumeristic society as the beer cannot be resold, it would be thrown away, so all the time time engery and man power that went into making that beer is being thrown away. If the customer comes back and says they forgot their beer, and has teh receipt they will give them more from the cooler. Once beer and cigarettes have left the store they cannot be returned, even if they appear not to have been opened.