ethical requirement when you find a ring?

Tell him if he finds it slip it in his pocket without anyone seeing him and tell them he couldn't find it. Just kidding of course, just like poking the fire a little more.

While you are in the teaching mode of our youth, if you can find the owner by an inscription inside ok. I check the lost and found on craigslist and local paper for one week. Then it is mine. digger27 is right about trying to return stuff though. Our morals and values to do the right thing sometimes out weighs a persons desire to get their lost item back.

If I find something valuable the it must have been part of the great design for me to have it. Who am I to slap at the hand of fate?

I wish we could all get together, say a gymnasium somewhere and have all these discussions in a group format, face to face.

Like the great Mickey Redmond always says "Katy bar the door."

40acre1870 said:

I wish we could all get together, say a gymnasium somewhere and have all these discussions in a group format, face to face.

Like the great Mickey Redmond always says "Katy bar the door."

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If that happend, 97% of the views would change

Bazetech said:

If that happend, 97% of the views would change

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and the beeping would make you deaf!

Captain Silver said:

If someone asked me to look for a ring they lost and I found it, I would return it. Otherwise, it's finders keepers....

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BINGO. I didn't need to read any further.

My nickname is 14K .... if any of you find my ring - I'll pay postage !

I can describe it, it was yellow-colored too! It was rather large when I lost it, but out in the weather - it may have shrunk. The neat thing about this ring is that it had interchangeable stones (I just can't remember what was in it when I lost it) I get around - a lot - so it really could have been lost anywhere. Let me know when you find it!


Seriously - I hope that good deeds come home to roost. I was in a supermarket the other day. This one uses one of those 'self checkout' lanes .... well the lady in front of me used a debit card, asked for cash back and got ripped off by 20.00. She was supposed to get 30.00 and got two fives, the last bill didn't come out. She called the attendant over and made her case, and he gave her the twenty.

I paid in cash, with a 20.00 bill. The first bill out of the chute for my change was a 20.00! I gave it to the clerk. He really thanked me for my honesty .... I said, "It's not my twenty dollars!"

I was about 1/2 way home before I realized my change was supposed to be a one and a ten .... I got a twenty followed by a one .... I gave back the 20.00 and walked out - not realizing that the same machine kept my last bill too (the ten)

So in this case, my inattention, and honesty cost me ten bucks! (But it was more my inattention than anything else)

SeabeeRon said:

Come on guys!! Can't we have a subject on here that does not get into bashing each other and our varied opinions on a subject?!? Tone it down or another thread goes to the dumpster!!

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But Ron, Guys here are being judged!

Bazetech said:

If that happend, 97% of the views would change

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Not mine... to each their own... if someone asks me to search for a lost item not a problem.. but if I find an item enjoying my hobby its mine... I didn't spend all the money I did on my beach machines and equipment to find clad

Just for the record I want you all to know what im talking about.
If im out and I find say a gold wedding band. That I would keep. If I was out and find a gold class ring with a name, year, school. I would do my best to return it. I feel this would be the right thing to do. It doesn't matter if they thank me. Its the right thing. If you wouldn't then so be it. Im done with this thread

Bazetech said:

Karma is a real weird thing. I feel if it has a name on it, research it and if you can return it, you should. Maybe you'll get a finders fee. At least be able to sleep at night. When it comes to my kids, I try to lead by example. That's just me. However, if it is unmarked, think like a pirate!

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Couldn't have said it better. Remember, your kid is looking to you and will apply your logic in the future. What will he think when he finds a wallet down the road? He'll think back to what you did with the ring.

tater said:

This is the exact reason a lot of you people get told that you cant detect someones property. If I had a piece of prime land and someone like this asked I wouldnt let you anywhere close. I would tell you to go spend your own money on your own land

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See? There you go jumping to conclusions. What makes you think I don't give back items if I can find the owner? Do you think I am not kind? I certainly didn't say whether I did or not in my post. Since I primarily hunt public beaches and not private property I'd say that at best you are comparing apples to oranges and at worst you are making assumptions designed to disparage my character.
"you people" indeed.

351maverick said:

in my experience there are two kinds of metal detector people - those that do it for the thrill of the chase, the chance to find long lost treasure, and then there are those that are in it just for the money

the money guys always say "finders keepers" no matter if there is a name, address, phone number etc etc on a find

the other guys have better moral values and will try to return a find if there is any way possible to

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I agree with you 100%. I am not concerned with the person not being grateful. I am concerned that I did the right thing. I do not want something that is someone elses property.

PI JOE said:

But Ron, Guys here are being judged!

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Here come da judge...here come da judge...

Utahoutdoors, see what you started?

sgtwilks said:

I agree with you 100%. I am not concerned with the person not being grateful. I am concerned that I did the right thing. I do not want something that is someone elses property.

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So what do you do with everything you find? Isn't this the wrong hobby if you aren't looking for things dropped by other people? Those coins don't fall from the sky.

If a ring (or any item for that matter) can be easily traced back to the owner I would without a doubt return it. I’m surprised at how many people on here wouldn’t actually. I mean what percentage of our finds actually DO have a full name inscribed in them or a school/year/name in the case of a class ring? Not that many. I figure there are enough finds that simply could not be returned even if we wanted to return them that the very few we find that CAN be returned should be. Everything we find once belonged to someone else so why not return the very few that we can? Is the $84.06 you’re going to make on melt really worth more than somebody having a long-lost wedding band or class ring returned to them? I would think the golden rule would apply here, no? I’m no saint but I can certainly tell you that if I lost my wedding ring (done it!) or class ring (and it had my name in it) I would certainly be hoping that the finder would return it to me. It might be worth a hundred bucks in melt to him but it is worth far more than that to me. Kind of ironic actually that I have found many, many rings but lost my own wedding band at school last year...I would trade 100 of the rings I’ve found for my own ring back.

As for all this talk about the angry or ungrateful recipient upon return, I find that very strange but even IF somebody didn’t show the kind of thanks I was expecting I’m not sure I’d use that as justification to never try and return another item (surely these type of ungrateful people are in the minority!). Yes, you spent the money on the equipment, yes you went out and did the hard work, but again, 95% of the stuff we find we can keep because there is no realistic way of tracing it to any original owner so in my opinion we should take the opportunity to return the very small percentage of finds that actually can be traced to somebody. I actually wish I had more opportunity to do so...most of the bands I find have only first names or initials inside them so there is really no way to find the owner. Personally I would rather see a person reunited with an important and sentimental item than have a few extra grams for the pile. It’s simply worth more to them than it is to me and, in the end, returning it would give me a bigger charge than the melt value would anyway so everybody wins (except in these strange cases of people not really wanting their rings back!)

Before people start calling me names here I’ll say again that I definitely ain’t no saint but I think we’ve all been on the ‘losing’ and the ‘finding’ end of situations in life and I think one of the great things about this hobby is that it does allow for personal gain while still giving us chances to give back once in a while. I’ll also say again that I’m only talking about items that can be fairly-easily traced back to an owner so you can save the sarcastic, “Well I guess we should just donate everything we find to charity then!” lines...I’m not talking about that kind of thing, clad and 95% of everything else we find. Is making a total stranger's day become a cheesy, new-agey, worthless concept? Sad if it has. To 99.9% of the population WE are the stranger.

Finders keepers? In most situations, but for me I’ll take the few opportunities I can get to do a little bit of good for somebody else too. Hopefully whomever finds my wedding band will feel the same way.

I would like to say the same, as to if it is a ring with a name on it, a set of keys with a name on it, anything that can be traced back to the rightful owners, I would try and do so.

Money, a ring or anything that is untraceable, that is mine.

It is only right!

tjr35 said:

So what do you do with everything you find? Isn't this the wrong hobby if you aren't looking for things dropped by other people? Those coins don't fall from the sky.

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Come on you are smarter than that. Im talking about PERSONAL items.