Money Moral Dilemma: Should I take cash left in the self-service machine?

comeandgo

My opinion same as Joybell. To ask who would be honest and not take what is not theirs is not a dilemma. Cash machines have cameras so it would be very easy to see who took the money.

mrs_lds

Your integrity is more important do the right thing karma will come your way

Laurensalive

No you should not take the money left in self service till. I had this issue some weeks ago in Tesco. A five pound note had been left. As soon as I noticed I told the staff member who took it away. I would not take someone else's money.

mjm3346

Hand it in - How's this a moral dilemma when it's just like asking if it's ok to steal?

spurs505

Simply taking the money and keeping it for yourself is theft. Theft means to intentionally permanently deprive another person of their property. The official crime classification in England and Wales would be "Theft other including theft by finding".
People can and do report theft of money left in self-service machines to the Police. Usually these are covered by CCTV, so to simply take the money is likely to end up in arrest.
The correct thing to do is to hand the money in to the supermarket, and if the owner later attends the supermarket, they can reclaim it.

jenniewb

I asked for cashback at a Morrisons self service checkout, it was only £10 but it was all I had left and my plan had been to get what I had left in actual hard cash so I wasn't at risk of over-spending and incurring bank charges or messing my credit rating any further.


I was in such a stressed out moment at the time, I forgot to take my cash-back; unlike other tills I've been to, the Morrisons self service doesn't ask a staff member to verify you've accepted the cashback.


I left the checkout and the £10 remained, no alarm, no staff member chasing me and despite the queue, the next person behind me waiting for the till I'd just used did not alert me to my mistake either. I lost out £10.


I had no money that weekend. I was unable to eat properly as I had not enough food, not such a disaster on one front for someone trying to stay well from anorexia as it was something do-able to me. But it did put me back months in terms of the recovery I was trying to battle for as I wasn't able to just snap-back to eating how I had been when I next had the money for food, some 3 days later.


For that reason; if I find cash left at a till, I will always hand it in because it didn't happen to me and you never know how important that cash could be to the person who had accidentally left it.

lansar

I accidentally left £10 in a cash machine outside Asda. The security bloke told me that the machine automatically takes back the money after 10 seconds (if no one takes it before then). The security camera showed me at the cashpoint machine and no one was behind me in the queue so I contacted my bank and they refunded the money as it did not automatically go back into my bank account. If I ever find money left behind in the machine I always hand it into the nearest shop as other kind people have done the same for me (it's happened a few times to me!). :eek:

catz747

It's theft if you keep it and according to our local ASDA if you hand it to staff and it isn't claimed it goes to charity.

tallgirld

When did you find it? Are you still standing at the machine trying to decide what to do with it?

I find these dilemmas silly as we all know the right thing to do is hand it in BUT that is not what we would all do. Why bother asking the question?

KEEP IT!

System

If I find the previous customer left their change at the self scan I go to, I hand it to the colleague supervising them. They print off the last receipt as they use that to ask the customer what they bought to prove its their change.

My friend that works in a supermarket with s/s, says about half of the left change its actually collected l later. The rest goes to charity. Once a customer bought 2 pints of milk paying with a £20 note. Left the £19 odd change. Never collected it. Must have more money than sense for paying more for that than a bottle of spirits.

Taking money which is left is theft. Though once, I had 20p in coppers in my purse and swapped it with the 20p coin left.