Myers Depot Metal Detectors

ethical requirement when you find a ring?

When you lose your wallet, of course you can count on any cash being removed. You instantly cancel all credit and bank cards, and you need to replace your drivers license. But wouldn't you still want you wallet returned, if it were found? Don't know about everyone else, but I care a few things, that would be hard to replace in there. Nothing really heartbreaking, but would still like to have. Of course, it would be awesome to get your wallet back, with all the contents, still a good idea to replace the bank cards...
 
HarveyH48 said:
When you lose your wallet, of course you can count on any cash being removed. You instantly cancel all credit and bank cards, and you need to replace your drivers license. But wouldn't you still want you wallet returned, if it were found? Don't know about everyone else, but I care a few things, that would be hard to replace in there. Nothing really heartbreaking, but would still like to have. Of course, it would be awesome to get your wallet back, with all the contents, still a good idea to replace the bank cards...
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I have found wallets before and returned them full.... one had about a thousand dollars in it...

I remember it well... the wife was pissed off that he left it on the roof of his car and she was punching him... :laughing: they thanked me and shut the door in my face.. would have been nice to get enough for a cup of coffee :lol:
 
Cfmct said:
I have found wallets before and returned them full.... one had about a thousand dollars in it...

I remember it well... the wife was pissed off that he left it on the roof of his car and she was punching him... :laughing: they thanked me and shut the door in my face.. would have been nice to get enough for a cup of coffee :lol:
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I've returned a few wallets. One with no money in it the guy gave me 50 bucks. The one i regret not doing it on my own. I found a wallet right before Christmas one year. It was loaded with cash. I'm talking 100$ bills. I turned it in to a guy with mall security. Doubt it ever made it any further than the guy i handed it to. Later on our mall security got in a scuffle with the rapper juvenile. They wound up locking him up for assault. He kicked their ass when they tried to remove his do rag. The mall has a dress code:lol:
http://www.rapbasement.com/juvenile/jury-finds-juvenile-innocent.html
 
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Silversmith45 said:
I think it all comes down to would you want something that you lost returned to you? A lot of people wouldn't know how to go about having someone search for something that they lost. After reading some of these comments, I don't know as I would want some of them knowing where I lost something because it wouldn't be returned anyway. Ii try to return anythin if it has a name or I know who lost it. I had a boy tell me about a woman who had lost a diamond ring playing basketball in a schoolyard. he said several with detectors had looked for it but I found it. he knew where the woman lived (A few houses down) so I gave it to him and told him to return it. When she opened the door, he handed it to her and pointed to me. She looked in my direction and slammed the door. I have found two class rings, both with no name. One was from a school over a thousand miles away and the other was a gold 1937 class ring in bad shape. No way of returning either one. I have found keys with those store tags on them and returned them to the store . I also found a gold ring in a Wal mart parking lot. I turned it in to the curtesy booth. I seriously doubt that any attemp was made to find the owners. Still knowing that I could return something to whoever lost it would mean more to me than whatever it was worth. Even things found in school yards could be turned into the school if it was valuabe. There is a very good chance that it was reported lost. This goes a long way in helping our hobby. The gold rings that I returned and turned in were found when I was living in my truck. I could have used the money but they weren't mine.
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I remember you telling me that story Richard about the lady who simply slamed the door. Kinda sad. Its always in the back of my mind whenever I find something that I might be able to return.
 
Utahoutdoors said:
Please excuse my ignorence, my family and I are new to detecting. My 10 year old son found a silver ring the other day that got me thinking, if he finds a wedding ring or other valuable objects, is their an ethical obligation to try to find its former owner before he can call it his or is it finders keepers?
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To answer the OPs question, since this thread had gone really in another direction, here it goes...

Utahoutdoors, since you asked this question, it seems to me that you do have pretty good morals when it comes to life. So this is what I can offer you..

You find a ring, great!
Take the ring home, check the Lost & Found classifieds in the paper and the Lost & Found ads on craig's list for a few days or even up to a week.

If you cannot find an ad stating someone lost a ring, and its the ring you found, then I would say its yours.

If someone loses something worth value, you can bet that will post an ad incase someone finds it.

This way, you gave the person ample time to put a message out there that a ring is lost and is looking for it.

================================

Now for those rings lost LONG ago, do the same process.. But with this rings, its kinda different. If someone loses something LONG ago, and its been years, then I'm sure they have accepted they will never see the ring again.

The only real rings that you can track down the owners are class rings with years and names on them, unless you get lucky and find a ring with a first and last name on it, which I doubt will be the case.

If you're hunting someone's private property and they mention they have lost a ring and describe it and you find it, then definitely return that to them.

These are the things that I do. Some may think its wrong, some may think its right, some may whatever... We can really only offer suggestions and only you can make the decision on what makes YOU feel morally good and satisfied.
 
I have found 5 Diamond wedding rings and NONE of them had and marking in them other than the 14k stamp inside.. Finders Keepers...
 
First how do you know whether the original owner claimed the ring on their insurance? Class rings are often purchased with loss insurance. A $10,000 diamond solitaire might have been claimed as a casualty loss on a homeowner's policy?

If insurance companies were smart they would send out ringfinders.com to try to find each ring, and involve the owners, then they would feel a little more awkward when filing false claims, too.

TangleFoot said:
For those that are angry because they weren't given the "key to the city for your good deed"...so what?
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Anyone who is gets a several hundred dollar gold ring returned should be smiling ear to ear, at least! But they often don't, why is this? Distrust? Embarrassment? Guilt, because they claimed insurance, and now get to keep it? Bad feelings, memories of a past relationship? Immaturity? Stupidity? We are right to consider not returning items!

A guy in the club returned a ring to a police officer that lost a ring and they accused him of stealing it. I know anything you find is yours without a legal obligation to return it, but couldn't you get prosecuted for theft just having someone else's ring, however doubtful a successful prosecution would be? Who wants that? Maybe we should keep all finds secret!


One more thing. A found ring could have been lost decades ago, and a lot of rings have no way of showing their age. So you would have to check decades of lost ring ads.
 
Mick56 said:
A couple of years ago, I found a 1984 girls class ring in a local soccer field, the ring was from a school 100 miles away. The ring had the girls name inside, so I took a couple of pics of the ring, and emailed the pics to the schools website, with the info of where I found it, and my contact info.

The woman that read my email, actually knew the rings owner, and had the ring owner call me. The ring owner was super excited that I had found her ring, and told me that if I would mail the ring back to her, she would reimburse me for the postage.

I found the ring on a Sunday, mailed it on Thursday, and never heard anything back about it. Good chance I'll just keep the next one.
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Also you were not careful enough! How do you know the office lady didn't scam you and you mailed it to her friend?

-Never trust anyone to return an item. Don't be lazy do it yourself. Store clerks, principals, teachers, anyone even authorities - police sometimes keep stuff and use it for their office funds.

-Never show a picture of your find, before returning it. Make them describe the ring to you, even if it is inscribed.

-Never mail the ring. What you are going to trust the post office to deliver something with or without insuring it? How do you know the owner received it? I would want to see drivers license ID!

Ask for help at the school. Just say you found a ring inscribed. I would probably check the phone book, or whitepages.com first. I would make them describe it to me, tell you when and where they graduated, if it was a class ring...
 
I have returned a lot of rings. Only two said it was stolen from them. I guess they could TRY to prosecute you for having stolen property BUT what are the odds? You are TRYING to return it!!

I will keep putting smiles on people's faces. NOT my concern if insurance paid for it. I tried to return the 14 grand ring I found and after advertising in the paper, on Craigslist and even being on the Detroit news to no avail I kept it.

How others govern their lives has NO bearing on how I govern mine. If they reported it on insurance and take it from me, so be it. I did what I felt was right.

Just do what you feel is right and let the rest fall into place.
 
willyeinstien said:
with that said---I sent a guy email about a ring he lost --posted on craigslist---i offered my services--gave him the thrill of the hunt speech--& said 40 bucks for 2-3 hrs hunting---he replied "no i wont "TeLL"you what it looks like--& I cld go get myself a detector and do that,get a life"---wow-OOOOH i said---FFWD 3weeks---i just happen to be close the park--where it was lost--kid wanted to play for a bit--too--so parked--went over to the volleyball court---so my son cld play in the sand---fired up my BH--did one sideline pass--cpl bottle caps---then-beeeep---pushed away some sand---and saw white gold band--"no way"ended up a-15.2gram 14k---no initials--shaking grabbed my son--went tested it ---all real and worth $400+--emailed guy asking if he found it---no response--days later sold ring & bought my atpro with that $-----
So "Karma" works both ways---Do what feels good---"right or wrong depends on your point of perception".
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I wouldn't have just paid some stranger to look for my lost ring either. He probably felt taken advantage of by you asking for $40. You could have been scamming him. It was stupid for him to not tell you what the ring looked like. He had already given out the most important information, where it was lost!

If you had told him that you found a ring, and asked him to describe what it looked like, he probably would have called you, back but at least this way you screened out uncooperative people.
 
Yahoo , let me back fill this hole and I will be right over :laughing:
 

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