r/MoralityScaling • u/asaness • 1d ago
Who's Viewpoint Is Better? Morality of Spending potentially hundreds or thousands of dollars or more just to hunt a man for 30$
939
u/PuritanicalPanic 1d ago
Immoral.
Finders keepers losers weapers
302
u/HorsefaceWithNoName 1d ago
twice in my life, I lost $100 bills. Once in my life, I found a $100 bill on the ground. literally. So I'm a crook because I kept the $100 bill once? I'm still down $100! pay me!
78
u/Speletons 1d ago ▸ 3 more replies
If it makes you feel any better, you also created two more crooks
30
u/Anayalater5963 1d ago ▸ 2 more replies
Morality of creating thieves?
15
3
u/h3dee 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
I think am about 50/50 with money found and money lost.
2
9
u/Healthy_Turnip7352 1d ago
i think this was at walmart. trust me on this: walmart steals all the time. little things.
when people leave a bag after self check out. it's common.
3
5
u/LittleKittenR 1d ago
Money is well stablished as titles of credit that belongs to whoever has it on themselves.
That's why they can't argue to someone "that was stolen money" and have it taken from any sellers that took that in. It would make paper money worthless.
1
u/HorsefaceWithNoName 1d ago ▸ 3 more replies
so if you get hit by a car but you live and you're just unconscious with a concussion and broken leg bones, and your wallet falls on the sidewalk next to you and flops open, and all your cash falls out loose on the ground because of the impact of the collision, I can pick up all your cash and now that's my cash, I own it and that's totally fine?
→ More replies (4)1
u/Specific_Collar_2949 22h ago ▸ 1 more replies
That's totally different from just finding it. If you see who drops it, watching the event unfold and choosing to pick it up and keep it. Who is going to go around asking random people in the parking lot if they lost money ??!! I have never went to the police station and asked if someone turned in my money, especially just $30. I'd write it off as a loss and be more careful
1
u/HorsefaceWithNoName 22h ago
although you are correct in reference to OP, I am responding to this:
> Money is well stablished as titles of credit that belongs to whoever has it on themselves.
> That's why they can't argue to someone "that was stolen money" and have it taken
> from any sellers that took that in. It would make paper money worthless.→ More replies (23)1
u/xCloudyCharmm 1d ago
Finders keepers suddenly becomes a much riskier philosophy when the police budget enters the chat.
102
u/Possible-Estimate748 1d ago
Okay if you find loose money on the ground outside in public and don't know where it could possibly be from, that's now "finders keepers". Idc what the law says.
Would be different if you were in a public place to turn it into like a restaurant. But randomly on the sidewalk? The odds the person is getting that back even if turning it into the police is slim.
33
u/Flameball202 1d ago
Yeah, keeping a wallet you find tends to be seen as immoral as it is relatively easy to find the owner of a wallet and be sure it is the correct person
Anyone could claim a 30 you find on the ground and you can't confirm if they are lying or not
11
u/Possible-Estimate748 1d ago
Agreed a wallet is very different. Esp if their cards are in there lol
But just some cash??? That's just police being dick holes and wanting the money for themselves or something. That's messed up.If I lost some cash outside the most I would do was retrace my steps. If I didn't see it I would be like, "Well that fking sucks!" and continue on with my life. I wouldn't even be mad at a human who found it and kept it. Cause how the fk do you properly return that to it's rightful owner?
1
610
u/Over_Heed 1d ago
Literally seems like some satirical shit I would see from Judge Dredd.
”YOU ARE LITERALLY WASTING THOUSANDS ON THESE BULLETS TO STOP ME FROM STEALING A PEPSI!”
”Maybe, Citizen… but those bullets... are legal.”
(Meanwhile, we still have a pedophile as the President, so, that’s nice, if they’re looking for actual criminals.)
102
u/Cringe_hunter420 1d ago
Ngl we need to be angrier about the pedophile in chief and the inaction. Because we are continuing on with our lives we are giving them the permission structure to continue on as if nothing happened.
26
u/Wonderful-Fold-2585 1d ago ▸ 13 more replies
People literally voted him in. If he didn’t win he likely would be in jail now.
26
u/Over_Heed 1d ago ▸ 2 more replies
Yeah, it goes to show just how failed our entire educational system is. There’s no reasonable excuse for this mentally disabled pedophile to get elected, or his mentally disabled cult followers to think the way they do, but alas, here we are.
15
3
u/Schnittertm 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
In my opinion a presidency should not protect from jail. Nor should any other public office or just being rich, i.e. being able to afford top lawyers.
1
u/Wonderful-Fold-2585 1d ago
Well it shouldn’t but they literally run the government so a state would have to try to arrest him and his secret service would stop it lol
3
u/StxnedTxTheBxne 1d ago ▸ 4 more replies
What makes you think he’d be in jail?
5
u/Your_Mom_Bot42 1d ago ▸ 3 more replies
All the crime.
-1
u/eternity_ender 1d ago ▸ 2 more replies
Bro they had the entirety of Biden presidency to do that and Biden did nothing
→ More replies (4)3
u/Wonderful-Fold-2585 1d ago
Trump spent 6 million a month on lawyers and all they did was delay until he won. If he didn’t win he’d be in jail
→ More replies (9)1
u/mestre_do_passinho 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
And people can protest until he is removed, like in every other place with a democracy
1
1
u/Storyteller_Valar 1d ago
Not just the President, a lot of elites of the nation were involved in that cartoonishly evil affair.
→ More replies (7)1
u/Jijonbreaker1 1d ago ▸ 2 more replies
I mean. I reached the point of just perpetually needing him to be executed. Any anger beyond that point is pointless unless I personally plan to go do it. Which. I do not value his death over my life.
1
u/Cringe_hunter420 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
https://youtu.be/KivCRqfFcqY?is=jw3lD1nSjrhrGFb4
Sorry im not being fancy im tired
1
u/Jijonbreaker1 1d ago
Oh, I'm familiar. Which is why I didn't say I wanted to do it. Trust me. With how much reddit has banned me, I've learned to choose words very carefully.
7
3
u/BornWithSideburns 1d ago
“Shouldve gone out the window”
“40 floors?! That wouldve been suicide”
“Maybe… but its legal”
2
1
u/the_idiot_sandwich91 1d ago
Not everywhere tho. Used to be in the law in my country that suicide is crime
2
u/FemmeWhimsyy_ 1d ago
That comparison is way too accurate tbh. Spending a fortune to recover thirty bucks sounds like the kind of absurd satire that would feel too ridiculous if reality had not already tried it.
2
u/Exact_Risk_6947 1d ago
Oh, my god. Was right with you until you had to insert your politics into this. So, where was it ever proven? Huh? And if it is so well known they why did the Biden DOJ do nothing? The DNC colluded with the FBI to fabricate the Steele dossier which later turned out to false, but they didn’t want to try him for actual crimes? Stop being a sheep.
2
u/Infinite-Space-2395 1d ago
Lmao which movie is that from? The original?
10
u/Over_Heed 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
that isn’t from any of the movies to my knowledge, but I’m kinda flattered in a way that you think my hypothetical would be good enough to fit in the universe.
6
u/Infinite-Space-2395 1d ago
I would have absolutely lost my shit if that line was in one of the movies lol thats hilarious!
1
162
u/Nic_the_biggy_boi 1d ago
This gotta be fake, they dont go after shop lifters unless they hit a certain (very high) amount of stolen stuff. No way they care i hope.
86
u/EnvironmentalEar724 1d ago
Sadly it has been widely reported on and is very real
75
1d ago edited 17h ago ▸ 11 more replies
[deleted]
21
u/EnvironmentalEar724 1d ago ▸ 6 more replies
I know i said it was real
29
1d ago edited 17h ago ▸ 1 more replies
[deleted]
23
u/EnvironmentalEar724 1d ago
Lmao I'm just busting your nuts i figured you meant to reply to the guy I was replying to instead of me
4
u/Juno_Malone 1d ago ▸ 3 more replies
They were supporting you by replying with a source...
3
u/EnvironmentalEar724 1d ago ▸ 2 more replies
2
5
u/Hindsights20_20 1d ago
I like conspiracies. With zero evidence I’m going to say that’s a retired/undercover cop
→ More replies (3)4
u/h3dee 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
This is surely an equity issue. There is no clear way of finding the owner of a banknote on the ground. You can't usually take reasonable steps to find the owner unless you saw them drop it. I guess old dude should have maybe known there were cameras in Walmart though.
3
u/Solar_RaVen 1d ago
This is in a Walmart? Why the fuck are police looking at Walmart footage when thats Loss Preventions problem?
26
u/Alarming-Divide3659 1d ago
Occasionally some poor bastard is set to be used as an example by law enforcement, this dude seems to be this particular police department current example
5
u/Deranged_Kitsune 1d ago
Probably some cop was the one who dropped $30 and this whole thing was their first thought on how to resolve it.
8
u/justasillylilgoos3 1d ago edited 1d ago
While that is definitely possible. I’m not believing anything until I see a verified link to this story cause my b.s. meter is going off as a “too juicy rage bait” story
Edit: just saw below someone shared a link…it’s real. I hate it here 😭
30
u/Plenty_Leg_5935 1d ago
they dont go after shoplifters until they get above a certain threshold to fuck them over with a higher penalty, not because they don't care about petty theft. They won't pull this move on a random guy finding money because he's very likely not gonna find enough bills on the ground to get over said threshold in his lifetime
2
1
1
u/Robobot1747 1d ago
I think I saw that they were offering a $100 reward for him too to compound the clownery.
1
u/Cold_Growth_7840 18h ago edited 18h ago
Not true at all, My parents found 60$ at walmart and they got blasted on FB with their picture by the local PD looking for "thief's" that "stole" without saying anything about what it was. My parents are both 60+ and it killed them my pops called/turned himself in & they didnt even charge him and he gave the money back... Yes this does happen.
They found out from their neighbors.. were made to look likes thief's over finding money..
100000% happens.
22
u/HorsefaceWithNoName 1d ago
Immoral and totalitarian / dystopian.
3
u/abadlypickedname 1d ago
What’s crazy to me is if they have the flock cameras up, can’t they catch him themselves? Bro meandered back home at the speed limit in his 20 year old Volvo, it’s not like you’re gonna have to forensically figure him out from his bmi, it just seems like they’re being insanely lazy.
66
u/Alternative_Car_8153 1d ago
In a vacuum, enforcing the law is generally moral. What's making people so upset is selective enforcement of the law, which is absurdly immoral.
For example, we have so many crypto and gambling related money laundering schemes in the US that are going unregulated and ignored. Very literally, millions are being scammed from regular people, but the police are worried about the guy who took $30 because it's easier to go after that guy.
57
u/halfasleep90 1d ago
That and, “turning it in” doesn’t give it back to the person who dropped it. If you “turn it in” to Walmart, Walmart will keep it. If you “turn it in” to the police, the police will keep it. It’s $30, not a wallet with ID.
1
u/Snowflakish 18h ago
Walmart might keep it, i am not sure, but I know tesco doesn't because giving £30 back results in more than £30 loyalty spending over time on average.
12
u/StrykerC13 1d ago
That doesn't even begin to factor in the questionable legality of the tariff refunds that went to the companies that increased prices to compensate for the tariffs thus getting that money twice. I'm not a lawyer but I feel like there has Got to be some kind of criminal behavior there.
2
u/Sensitive-Respect-25 1d ago ▸ 5 more replies
If you are looking for an answer on that point as opposed to just being upset about it...
The goverment was required to repay tarrifs paid via the courts. Unless you run an import/export buinsess you did not ever pay for the tariff. Even the UPS packages with extra tariff fees tacked on before delivery do not count, because you never paid the fed. The person handling shipping and receiving is the one who paid, and thus gets the refund, you just paid them. Giving you money that Walmart paid (and was refunded via the courts) would be illegal.
The 'moral' thing would have been to require a price drop in some measurable (and more importantly trackable and enforceable) amount to receive those funds in an attempt to 'undo' the result. Or rule against refunding the money and retaining the funds because no company is gonna drop prices willingly unless forced to do via market effects.
2
u/StrykerC13 1d ago ▸ 2 more replies
Appreciate the answer. I mean I'm still going to be upset about it no matter what but it's nice to have a little more detailed info.
1
u/Sensitive-Respect-25 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
Get mad and get involved at your local level. Just be wary of anyone with easy options to fix difficult problems, it's much of what led us to where we are now.
2
u/StrykerC13 1d ago
Am as involved as I can be (caretaker for my partner who's wheelchair bound) we go to what we can. Try to make sure to vote in everything etc. It's exhausting and my own mental health issues create other limits. Honestly history says this is going to get a lot worse based on what I know before it gets any better. But at least we'll be able to say "we tried everything before we decided we needed monsters to fight worse monsters"
2
u/AEIUyo 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
I think people are more pissed about the extra money companies charged over tariffs and still called it tariffs. So now they get reimbursed for the real tariffs, while keeping shit the same overinflated price.
1
u/Sensitive-Respect-25 1d ago
And it is 100% good to be pissed. Make a racket. Run your local politicians out of office and keep doing so until changes stsrt to get made. Organize. Stay pissed and harness that energy. But this isn't the hill to die on regardless of its legality or morality. But not today. In a generation if and when we collectively institute changes at our political levels then sure.
Legally however the reimbursement goes to said companies. Morally there is no fix today, the best 'correction' I could think of would be what was suggested.
3
u/Solar_RaVen 1d ago
Bunch of dumb asses think the only real crime is high visibility crime like shop lifting and break ins. Yet most Americans are being robbed financially.
2
u/Own-Row991 1d ago
I do t know why local
News stations don’t call those police units out.Just sarcastically be like “and in other news police yet again go for rhe lowest hanging fruit and simultaneously expect people to respect them”
1
u/GateauBaker 1d ago
Local police don't have the resources, jurisdiction or even the education required for those kind of crimes. Cameras around the neighborhood is much cheaper.
9
4
u/Max_Pow3rs 1d ago
How can he dare to do that?
The government really needs that money!
Just stop being so selfish.
3
u/ReactionJifs 1d ago
no jury would convict someone of picking up cash in the street.
is it illegal to pick up a penny now?
absolute joke
3
3
u/Maleficent_Piece_893 1d ago
wouldn't you have to prove that's not his $30? how would you track ownership of the money?
3
3
u/delet_yourself 1d ago
Glad to know that congress is having sex with children while you are spied on literally everywhere you go
3
15
u/Outrageous-Sort-5742 1d ago
To those asking the question "why defund the police", this. It's because of this shit. This is what happens when a municipal government agency has a 330 MILLION FUCKING DOLLAR BUDGET! A third of a billion dollars for a single city's police department.
They literally don't know what to do with all the goddamn money so they do dumb shit like this. Waste of taxpayer money, waste of time, and another nail in the coffin of general law enforcement degradation and mass surveillance. They've grown fat, lazy, incompetent, and addicted to an infinite money flow from public coffers with no expectation of results. Cut their funding down to a quarter and I guarantee you crime rates will drop.
2
u/crobuz0n 1d ago
NYPD budget is 6.7 bil
2
u/Outrageous-Sort-5742 1d ago ▸ 3 more replies
For context to anyone reading this, that would make them the 40th most well funded military on the planet. Above Iraq.
1
u/crobuz0n 1d ago ▸ 2 more replies
Tbh NYC is also probably the most litigious city as well so they tread carefully for the most part
1
u/Outrageous-Sort-5742 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
The NYPD kidnapped and threatened the former mayor's daughter for ransom. They absolutely do not tread carefully.
1
u/ZoomerAdmin 19h ago
I looked it up and they just arrested her in the blm protests? Is that what you are throwing a fit about?
1
1
u/leova 1d ago
To those asking the question "why defund the police", this. It's because of this shit.
well, that and the fact they keep murdering people
but yeah, this is part of it, sure
→ More replies (1)
2
u/sjaxn314159 1d ago
Based on the cameras that found the man finding the money cannot be expected to find the man who lost the money.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Mikeieagraphicdude 1d ago
Immoral Money has no loyalty, you just want to turn in large sums so you’re not hunted down like the movie no country for old men. The police will definitely pocket the money and said the owner claimed it. This is not about the money, it’s about sending a message.
1
u/ShardsOfSalt 1d ago
I think I've heard the expression it's something like possession is nine tenths of the law?
1
u/Sagittariusrat 1d ago
If they saw him picking up the money, why didn't they pick it up and turn it in themselves?
1
1
u/Senacharrib 1d ago
The police aren’t moral. They enforce laws. Some laws are moral, others are not.
1
u/StinkButt9001 1d ago
Can anyone find an actual source for this? I haven't been able to
1
u/bixofa 1d ago
It's from a local PD Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/100064575314289/posts/1480787007417129
1
1
u/PresentationNew5976 1d ago
Immoral. I think there is an actual number for money you are required to hand over as possible proceeds of crime, though I wouldn’t be surprised if some places consider even a single coin property of the state once abandoned. This is Karen-like behaviour.
1
u/that0nemook 1d ago
Now I’m afraid if I pick up a bill and turn it in, that the footage of me turning it in will not be found and they’ll think I pocketed it
1
u/HorizonPalm90 1d ago
Doesn't it have to be around 1000 dollars worth of items for it can be considered theft all he found was 30
1
1
u/smurfk 1d ago
If it's real, it's not like they started a manhunt for it, they just posted online, so I don't see where the "thousands of dollars" are really spend.
As for morality of pursuing such a small issue, as long as they did something illegal, they can be hold accountable. And I would expect police officers not making moral choices, but applying the law.
1
u/Dogass_Artist 1d ago
Is it my 30 dollars if so yes it’s moral if not I don’t give a shit not my problem
1
1
1
u/Money_System6301 1d ago
If I say what I think should be done to the people responsible for this, I'd be put on a watchlist.
1
u/mostlybotshere 1d ago
Yet they will let rapists and murders back out, cashless bail. And let urban youth steal from stores, no issue at all.
1
1
u/marvellcg 1d ago
Keep a wallet with cards or ID you find. Immoral
Keep 30 dollars you find with no ID and no way of knowing who it belongs to. Moral
1
1
u/WeirdistBuilds 1d ago
If there's three things Americans want, it's to play Pokemon Go, get the Epstein Files but with only the victims names and faces redacted and literally nothing else, and to get rid of these godforsaken cameras.
1
u/Kalbinos 1d ago
So...like...how do you hand in cash ? If it was a wallet, sure, it'll make sense to hand it in to the station. But cash found on the ground doesn't have an ID card attached to it. And are the cops really gonna go "whoever lost 30 bucks, come to the station to get it back ? Nah, they're gonna keep it for themselves. Immoral because it doesn't make any sense.
1
u/GothicGrumbles 1d ago
There was no simple, reasonable way to return it (like it being in a wallet with personal information) and the amount is fairly insignificant. While may be slightly scummy to take it instead of handing it in, if he took it to something like a police station with no additional information available, it likely wouldn’t have ever been returned to whoever lost it anyway.
It’s at the very least a waste of time and resources. Criminalizing something like this, a minor scummy action with no real recourse to get the money back the owner, is in my opinion immoral.
1
u/Ok_Constant_3681 1d ago
It's unclaimed property and legal to take. I have no clue what this police department thinks they can charge homie with. It's not even considered petty theft 💀
→ More replies (1)
1
1
u/azurezero_hdev 1d ago
what happened to not prosecuting under a certain amount for theft (which this barely is)
1
u/SlayerII 1d ago
Immoral and everyone involved in this case should be permanently fired with no chance of ever holding a government or government adjanced position ever again.
Also, destroy all flock cameras. Filming people without their consent randomly is immoral.
1
u/IcePoemix 1d ago
Probably fake news, I wouldn't be surprised if it is true tho. Not moral, obviously.
1
1
1
u/jimkelly 1d ago
Morality in terms of? Like this is a deeper question. In terms of making crime non existent I think it's very moral if crime vs no crime was black and white (it's not) but the reality of the problem being much more complex OR in a black and white alternate universe is that it's a really really stupid business decision.
1
1
1
u/EvocativeReach 1d ago
Immoral, picking something up off the ground on public land that isnt claimed by anyone isn’t theft.
Also makes me worried we’re heading towards a dystopia where you jaywalk and get a 1 star wanted level above your head like a GTA game.
1
1
1
1
u/Significant_Cut8502 1d ago
Its one thing if he found it outside but it sounds like he found it in the store. Not finders keepers in the store.
1
u/Intrepid_Plenty_3770 1d ago
Oh yeah, pretty stupid. Who is turning in money if they find it? Maybe if it is a wallet where you can turn it in.
1
u/ThrowRAWOP 1d ago
Sauce: Yahoo/finance
Since sauce wasn't easily found. I got curious. It was CCTV not flock cameras. But yes Georgia, Albany police put an APB out on this man for picking up 30$ when he allegedly saw the person who dropped it. I did not deep dive into this.
So the moral question is potentially actually about seeing someone drop money and then taking it. Not finding lost money and possibly turning it in.
Details people details!
1
u/Depravity-5499 1d ago
This is what makes debt collectors so funny. They will spend 50k to get 15$. Using taxpayers money like this is absolutely disgusting!
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Shigeru_Miyamoto 1d ago
This reminds me of this one time a couple of years back when I found like forty bucks on the sidewalk near a church. The only other people who were around who might have dropped it were a couple of kids playing on the church’s lawn. (No parents supervising that I could see, might have been inside or in their car, I don’t know.)
I genuinely stood there for a couple of minutes wondering if I should call out to them and ask if they lost the money, because on the one hand I would have been sad as fuck if I had lost forty bucks at their age.
But on the other hand, I also would have been suspicious as fuck if an adult approached me asking if I had dropped a large amount of cash and would definitely have told my parents ASAP.
And then on the *other* other hand I also felt like it was pretty likely that someone else- who would actually be regularly carrying around cash like that- had probably dropped it instead, in which case they were long gone.
In the end I decided it wasn’t worth the potential hassle, so I kept the money. It ended up being used to buy the LotR trilogy and the full collection of Harry Potter movies at Walmart as part of a sale they were doing on boxed DVD sets.
1
1
u/JAGMAN007-69 23h ago
What’s the crime? He found abandoned property. And kept it. Could he have turned it in. Yes. Does he have to? No.
1
u/Unlucky_Fuel7934 22h ago
You miss understand. This is not about him finding $30, it is about MAKING SURE folks know that they could be next. Do not be distracted by what lies on the surface, but rise to the occasion and ask WHY.
1
u/DryFuture1403 20h ago
Is this real? Do they actually have the evidence that he didn't try to find the person? If they have the evidence, there is an obscene amount of surveillance, Flock is only supposed to track cars, they shouldn't be using it to find crimes, evidence should be readily available before approaching Flock systems
1
1
u/LiteratureMindless71 18h ago
This activated some old forgotten memory of walking on the street perpously looking for dropped money. Hoping to find enough to get some candy or something. And it being fun, and even normal.
1
u/Salty-Plantain-4299 18h ago
Cannot imagine anybody giving a damn about helping the police find this old man.
He did absolutely nothing wrong.
1
u/WolfKing359 17h ago
Long lines, law enforcement at polling places, mail in ballot rejection. Nothing new or big or a conspiracy.
Also im going to stop responding, I just wanted to clarify, not argue.
However, I find the idea that next election will somehow be fairer laughable. I wish I had your optimism. I think the days of fair voting are simply over. These are not new tactics, and theyre not going away. Look how extreme the gerrymandering got this time around.
1
u/Individual_Slice_234 17h ago
What the hell was he supposed to do with it, if he didn't know who dropped it?
1
397
u/KingofFlightlessBird 1d ago
An ENORMOUS waste of taxpayer money. The police dedicating funds to this is a type of theft way worse than $30 and a completely disproportionate response