Finders Keepers?

flbandit

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2006
Messages
53
Reading some of the posts about really nice finds got me to wondering; How much effort does one put into finding an owner if one finds a seriously nice ring or something similiar? If you found a ring worth, say $10,000.00 would you try to find the owner, or does finders keepers rule? (Of course I can't wait to find that $10000.00 dollar ring!!! :lol:)
 
Find a $10,000 ring ? How hard do you search for the owner ? Are you %*$^&% kidding me !?!?! Stick it in your pocket and run for the truck, try not to run over too many folks while leaving the scene.. HH Roadrunner_426
 
I'd try to return a $10,000 ring, if there were initials, names or some other identifying mark on it. In other words, if there is a reasonable hope of finding the proper owner, then I'll try to return it. I couldn't look myself in the mirror if I didn't at least make the effort. Now, if there's no way at all of finding the owner, it's mine.
 
I would call out the initials and wait 5 seconds for a reply (4-3-2-1) yep! I tried.
:lol:
Who would want that thing hanging around the house? Not me. I would give it a good try to find the owner. Gems like that are lazer engraved....
 
I'm more of a relic hunter so ya if that musket ball that I dig up last week was shot into your great-great-grandfather then sure as heck I'll return it to you.  :lol:

In all searousness though I believe in the golden rule (aka do to others what you would like them to do to you) so yes I would make an effort to find the rightfull owner of any major find I made simply because I would expect the same from some other MD'er if they found somthing that I lost.
 
I'd make a reasonable effort (not ruling out ransom notes here, LOL).

Seriously though, yeah. Something of considerable value (more then $100?) & reasonably identifiable local find. Our local newspaper publishes free lost & found ads. I think I'd opt to show a PO Box, not just to keep the phonecalls from driving you crazy, but it'd be easy to weed out the repetitive guessers too.

Out on vacation, away from home? A lot less chance of it, it would just be a souvenier from the trip.
 
I've returned 2 separate 1/2 crt diamond rings and a friend found and returned a $15,000 ring. In all cases the only thing received was a thank you not even an offer of reward.

Now I'm all for returning items of high value if you can find the owner but I also believe you deserve compensation for your work. Excepting a reward is a matter of choice but the choice should be there.

I feel a 10% finders fee is appropriate unless other arrangements had been made. It's important to remember there are laws regulating such finds and you could loose out altogether if you get greedy.

You should check your local laws but in most cases you have a legal right to be compensated for your work. You must make a legitimate effort to find the owner. If you don't and at some point the legal owner finds out you will probably loose the item and any rights to compensation.

If you've made a legitimate effort to find the owner/heir with no luck it's yours.
 
so far I have returned 1 class ring and 1 wallet,the rest of the rings I have,there is no way of finding the owners,I live 2hours plus from where I find most of my stuff. I f I could find the owner yea I would try an return it.
 
It stands to reason that anyone who wears an expensive piece of jewelry would have had it insured.

Case in point... Last year a detectorist found a ring near me that he was offered $35,000 for it from a jeweler, he tried finding the owner with no success so he gave it to his wife.

Last winter I had an elderly woman come up to me and told me she lost her diamond ring worth $25,000 swimming, I searched in the water for weeks for that ring with hopes of returning it, to the best of my knowledge it hasn't been found yet.

Where I buy my gas for my trucks the attendent was telling me a story about his friend who went to a laundrymat to wash his clothes and dry them and when he put the wet stuff in the dryer and turned it on something was making noise in the dryer and he turned the dryer off removed his clothes and found a diamond ring which he was able to make a 1 carat diamond engagement ring for his fiance, a pair of 3/4 carat diamond stud earrings and a charm with 4- 1/2 carat diamonds inbedded in it... I guess its finders keepers for sure lol....

If its a school ring I will make an attempt or if someone asks me to find something they lost I will attempt it but if its anything else, its mine... case closed. ;)
 
A $10,000 ring is more then likely insured or should be, chances are whoever you are returning it to has already collected on it. This happened a few years ago here in New Hampshire when someone lost a  $5.000 and someone found it and returned it. The day after the return the headlines in the paper said Lost Ring Returned, a week after that the headlines in the paper said Insurance Fraud, Ring Was Insured.

I may make an effort to return a class ring or something to that nature. But a $10,000 ring, that baby is mine.

DirtDigger (New Hampshire)
 
Seems we were thinking the same thing the same time, your post must of come up while I was writeing mine.

Yep thats the way I feel about it!

DirtDigger
 
An interesting cross section of replies! My own feeling is along the lines of a reasonable effort to find the owner. If I make the effort without success, then it's mine. On a find of that nature I'd probably look into what the local laws are regarding found property. The insurance angle is interesting as well. Someone who already got the insurance money may not want the property back.
 
Since all I've found so far is valued at less than a dollar it's hard to say until it happens. I'm not sure if the value would have anything to do with my decision though.

Several years ago my wife lost her wedding ring while working part time at a local eatery. I still remember the devastation that we both felt. It wasn't worth 10,000.00 more like 800.00 but to my wife it was worth more than all the money in the world. Sure I bought her another ring but it wasn't the same one I put on her hand 14 years ago when we traded vows.

I've read the articles here where people find rings of all sorts and state sometimes that it really wasn't that valuable. Maybe not to the finder, but to the loser it might have meant the world.

Call me sentimental

El Diablo
 
Hmm, good question. I feel more like TK on this one, but Craig does have a good point. I think I'm somewhere in between.
 
On one hand, I would make every effort to find the owner, or watch the paper/sites for an ad of some sorts. I would give it a reasonable amount of time, then I would see about it.

On the other hand, I didn't flip 800 for a machine to find your stuff for you, if it meant that much and was worth that much, then one has no common sense swimming/jogging/volleyballing/basketballing with a piece of hardware like that on one's finger. I sweep, I keep.

A long time ago, maybe 15 years, my father found a retail ring box in a small shopping center parking lot. He found a ring that was gaudy and too big to be diamonds right?

WRONG!!!!

After having it appraised, it turned out to have better than 5 carats in seperate stones onboard. He did the right thing, called the Police, who told him the ring was stolen and proceeded to send a squad car over to recover it. He refused to release the ring until proper id was presented either a picture or a report of some kind. After 3 hours of discussion, the cops' shift ended and he left. Still, my father posessing "stolen" property was caught in a pinch. Make a long story short, the MORON that lost it was having it appraised, since it had been in the family for a relatively long time, went to put it into the inner breast pocket of his suit, and presto, disappearing ring. My father returned the ring, in person, after seeing the gem report. The owner handed my father an envelope, later finding two things inside.

1.) 30 dollars in cash.
2.)A threatening note saying that he should have returned it sooner and was about to be sued for posession of stolen property /causing harm by stress or some garbage like that.

I will post a picture of the ring when I get home, but needless to say, after a situation like that, if I had a ring of that value with a potential owner asking for it back, I would allow my ATTORNEY to handle all communication and never reveal myself/location of the ring. I know I sound jaded and that is 100 percent on the mark. If I would have been older back then, after reading that note, I would have buried his ring in a place where he would never lose it again. Use your imagination.

I will attempt to make a reasonable effort, exhausting every avenue that I have without putting myself in the way of harm being physical/legal/unseen. After that, finders keepers. Losers are S.O.L.

Sorry if this sounds bad/inappropriate, but from the past, John Q. Public has not been the nicest when my family did the right thing. Next time, it will be on my (lawyer's) terms or not at all.

Bri-
 
Maybe it's just me, but I don't need a reward for doing something nice for another person. I realize that I'm new here and going against long time members is basically suicide, but I'll stick to my morals and find another sport.

El Diablo
 
Hey Diablo, you don't get out of being an MD'er that easy...sure, with any endeavor you're going to have a few " bad apples " ( guys like me ) who wouldn't return a nice find if it was found lying on top of a stamped, self- addressed envelope put there by the owner..but the hobby needs guys like you to project a positive image and kind of off-set what some of us do...in short, there's room for all kinds and attitudes in this sport..besides, a lot of folks , including myself, would sorely miss the accounts of your hunting adventures... HH Roadrunner_426
 
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