| Quote: |
NEENAH, Wis. - A sanitation worker who found $1,900 attached to a discarded desk at a city scrap heap says he's followed the rules and now deserves the money _ but the city won't give it up.
"It's been very hard on me for being honest and then being told that because you're honest we're going to pat you on the back and take your money," David Voight said in a telephone interview Sunday night.
Voight, 52, found the cash in July, in envelopes attached by magnets to the underside of the metal desk at a junk drop-off site at the city garage.
Voight, a longtime street and sanitation worker for Neenah, turned the money over to police and waited for someone to claim it within 90 days.
"I really wanted it to go to the rightful person," Voight said. "It didn't matter to me. It wasn't mine to begin with.
"But it kind of rubbed me the wrong way that all of a sudden the council said since it was found on city property you can't have it."
Now that the 90 days are up and no one claimed the money, city officials have been wrangling over what to do with it.
|
-associated press
I guess that city is really desperate for money then. A city scrap heap is considered garbage - garbage is is a free for all site. Anyone can take anything. The city actually has no right to the money. It isn't even that large a sum really...About the garbage heap, it isn't really free, however, no one is gonna punish someone for going through garbage.
On shows like CSI, they say that since its trash anyone can get it legally, but who knows...
Aren't there privacy laws or something that prohibit someone from taking trash due to identify theft worries? If the person didn't shred his or her papers, going through their trash could yield some important confidential information.
Or lots of money the government will steal 
| Insanity wrote: |
| On shows like CSI, they say that since its trash anyone can get it legally, but who knows... |
That's TV.
In reality, even the desk the money was attached to still had some value, if only for scrap. Still, I doubt anyone would have tried to keep him from taking the desk, but $1,900? That's another matter. Also, in all fairness, the money must have originally belonged to the city if it was found on a city owned desk.
The moral of the story: if you find a large sum of money, don't tell anybody about it. | ocalhoun wrote: |
| Insanity wrote: | | On shows like CSI, they say that since its trash anyone can get it legally, but who knows... |
That's TV. |
Who knows, it might be true in some states. Different states have very different laws about some things. Not that I know - just speculating.Sure, with all your posts including 'who knows'...
Every garbage heap in the world is owned by somebody, and if it wasn't there yet, the desk still belonged to the city (the city probably owned the dump as well). I don't see how this man could claim any legitimate ownership of that desk or anything in it. Now, if he had asked his boss, "Hey, can I have this desk?" and the boss said yes, then the man could probably claim the money (if it was still attached to the desk at the time).
It was the city's garbage, and if they demand that he give it back, they are free to do so, because it belongs to the city, and he took it without permission.
when it is collected to someplace by the government or public department. it is no more free, as for my opinion.
But when it is by the road and waiting to be collected, then it is to say, hei, search me again, maybe you got to find some millions. 
honesty doesnt pay in this world anymore. Whoever taught us that will probably land up in hell!! haha
jokes apart, i think the city did a very bad thing but not giving the money to the sanitation worker. He deserves a pat on the back and the money as well.
Seriously if i had found the money i would have kept it for my self and i know most of us would. Poor guy, i hope good fortune follows him some how. i believe in karma and this guy deserves so much.
| ocalhoun wrote: |
| Insanity wrote: | | On shows like CSI, they say that since its trash anyone can get it legally, but who knows... |
That's TV.
In reality, even the desk the money was attached to still had some value, if only for scrap. Still, I doubt anyone would have tried to keep him from taking the desk, but $1,900? That's another matter. Also, in all fairness, the money must have originally belonged to the city if it was found on a city owned desk.
The moral of the story: if you find a large sum of money, don't tell anybody about it. |
Just because it's on TV doesn't mean it's not real. I suppose it all boils down to the issue of ethics vs. greed.So much for "honesty is the best policy" . . .
First: The guy who found the money was a sanitation worker and he didn't do anything illegal or take anything that didn't belong to him. Also, I didn't see anything saying the desk belonged to the city, it could have come from anywhere. Besides, rubbish is rubbish regardless of who threw it away - once it has been thrown out it's not yours any more!
If some homeless bum had found the money, he would have kept it - period! Because this guy works for the city, there are rules to be followed, and he followed them!
It would seem that after a period of 90 days the money should have been his, but then city officials broke all the rules with some nonsense excuses and decided to keep it for themselves rather than give it back to the worker who found it, as was the correct procedure, and as the man deserved.
Basically, the message that this city is sending out is: don't tell us if you find anything, cos we'll take it from you regardless of the policies and procedures we have in place.
I'm sure that sanitation worker needs the money more than the city, and he could probably put it to better use. Shame on the city!
