Taking Stuff That Isn't Yours

LeslieAGD · #1 07-24-2002, 10:56 AM

Okay, I recently bought this awesome pair of sunglasses that I was so excited about. Last night I went out to eat with one of my sisters and stupidly left them sitting on the table. I immediately called the restaurant and asked them to hold them for me...unfortunately, when I went to get them this morning they were "missing." I'm guessing that someone just snagged them.

Have any of you ever taken stuff from like the lost & found at your work and claimed it as your own, or know other employees that do this?

dzrose93 · #2 07-24-2002, 11:04 AM

My cousin's ex-girlfriend is a flight attendant, and she has quite a few items in her possession that people have left on the planes. However, she always attempts to locate the owner before she takes the items for herself, so she's one of the honest "finders."

I believe there is a lost and found policy at the airport where if items aren't claimed by a certain time, then the "finder" has the option to keep them. A couple of the things she acquired: a really nice camera someone left in the plane and some fly fishing rods. Don't know how someone forgets about their fishing rods, but apparently it happens!

Sorry to hear about your sunglasses, though! I used to work in a restaurant, so I know how things have a way of "walking off" from a table.

Eirene_DGP · #3 07-24-2002, 11:10 AM

Well at the store I work at, our lost and found has so much stuff in it that we try to avoid it like the plague. I don't know of anyone who has ever taken anything out of it that didn't belong to them....This is a little off the subject, but when I moved into a new dorm my sophomore year and was in the process of moving all my stuff in, I laid some new Paul Mitchell Conditioner on the bed that was WAY expensive and it disappeared. I don't know why my roommate thought I couldn't smell her just from the salon hair.

#4 07-24-2002, 11:13 AM

In college I worked for my school's computer lab, and our lost and found was overflowing. There was sort of an unwritten rule that lost items should sit there for a month or two to let the owner claim them, but after that, they were fair game. All I ever took were a few CDs (the most commonly left item) and some zip disks, but I know someone who actually took an MP3 player that someone just left in the lost and found for months and never came to claim...

Dionysus · #5 07-24-2002, 12:18 PM

Stealing is against the law!

justamom · #6 07-24-2002, 12:34 PM

My roommate and I were SO poor at one point, the last book had been sold back to the bookstore (you know what I mean) we would go to (oops, almost named the place) order 1 coke and split it. Then we woul clean out the crackers and take them home. We would get mustard packts from another establishment and there was dinner!

dekeguy · #7 07-24-2002, 02:13 PM

When I was on Active Duty after graduation a couple of the guys I hung around with were West Pointers. They told me that they had a very simple rule that was strictly enforced by the cadets themselves. The rule was, "shall not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those that do". That is very close to our chapter's gentleman's code which was a sort of unwritten obligation that we talk straight, deal with others in a fair and upright way, and that we respected the boundaries of others space which included their stuff. As pledges we were told that the brothers assumed that we were gentlemen and lived by gentlemen's rules, but to make sure we were all reading from the same sheet of music we were reminded that if someone asks you a direct question you give a direct answer in reply, that it was OK to ask for help but you had to give credit where credit was due, and that you didn't mess with anyone else's stuff except as a prank or joke and then you had to square it up with them afterwards. Play hard but play fair was the general idea.
My Grandfather told me that there was one exception to the rule against lieing. He said that it may sound really old fashioned but that all things considered if you were going to use words like "gentlemen" and "codes of honor" then the old rules still applied. The one exception was that a gentleman could not lie except to protect the reputation of a lady. It may not be PC but I see where he was coming from and I think he had a good point. As my sister likes to say, "the double standard is alive and well and don't kid yourself, it has teeth to bite you with".
My dad said that when he was in school the Chaplain, who he described as a "wise old clergyman" used to define a lie as "the deliberate witholding of information from one who is entitled to receive it". That is an interesting slant and raises some thoughts in my mind. Sometimes the honorable answer might not be the most truthful one. On the other side of the coin, those West Pointers I mentioned earlier said that if you are careful to apply the code in small things it becomes an ingrained habit and you instinctively do the right thing when faced with a tough choice.
All of this makes pretty good sense to me. Anybody have any thoughts to add?

FuzzieAlum · #8 07-24-2002, 02:39 PM

At my airline at least we do not get to keep the stuff you find. (Yeah, if you find a cheap pen or a dime, that's OK to keep.) But anything that someone is going to want back is taken in to our lost and found. A few times a year we have a "left on board" auction for the stuff no one claims, and the proceeds go to a fund to help employees who are in real hardship.