Finding things on the road….etiquette

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Jul 24, 2011
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Location
Missouri
When you see things of value laying on the side of the road or in an intersection do you pick them up? If so do you keep them, ask around a bit then keep them, post to social media or take to City Hall or other lost and found?

I’ve found plenty of things over the years. I think it’s usually situation/item dependent on what I do with them. Had a very interesting experience with this today that led me to rethinking the subject.
 
Like what? What was you experience?

I've never seen anything of value laying on the side of the road.
 
Today it was a really nice Stihl leaf blower laying off the side of the road by an intersection. I turned around to get it but noticed a truck with a landscaping trailer on it parked at an apartment complex just a few hundred feet down the road. So I pulled up asked if they were missing a leaf blower.

First guy who was using a leaf blower to blow the grass off of guy number two at the time goes “nope, all our stuff is right here” Second guy chimes in “well where was it?” I replied it was just along the road and didn’t wanna take it if it had fell off their trailer. Guy number two runs up to the sidewalk spots it and goes “oh yeah that one is one of ours” Then gives me the stink eye the entire time as I drove off.
 
Things like a wallet or cell phone I would try to locate the owner. Anything else is finders keepers . I have many tools I have picked up over the years.
I’ve taken a purse to City Hall.

As a teenager I got searched by the cops for loading up a push mower off the sidewalk of a business district late at night. It had road rash and obviously slid off of a trailer or something similar. He asked if it was mine, I asked if it was his. Maybe not the best response.

He wanted to search my truck for alcohol and after finding none advised me that I needed to drop off the mower behind City Hall since it was not mine and that he would follow me there to ensure I did so. He followed me there and I legitimately just threw the thing over the bedside of my truck into the back lot of City Hall and drove off.

The officer was super condescending the entire time but I was responding by being a jerk and was in possession of property other than my own. Probably lucky I didn’t get any sort of citation.
 
Wallet, keys, phone, yes I will turn it in. Tools and such I’m not spending my time looking for the owner.

Found really nice extension leader in my road in front of my house once. Had someone come by and asked about it, I would have happily returned it. But I’m not seeking out the owner.
 
I actually got my Blackstone Griddle by standing in my driveway at night talking to my brother in law. Heard a loud bang and noticed that about 10 yards down the road a guy lost it off his trailer. Rolled it into my driveway, stood around another hour or so no one came back. When it was still there in the morning I just rolled it to the back patio and have been using it since.
 
Today it was a really nice Stihl leaf blower laying off the side of the road by an intersection. I turned around to get it but noticed a truck with a landscaping trailer on it parked at an apartment complex just a few hundred feet down the road. So I pulled up asked if they were missing a leaf blower.

First guy who was using a leaf blower to blow the grass off of guy number two at the time goes “nope, all our stuff is right here” Second guy chimes in “well where was it?” I replied it was just along the road and didn’t wanna take it if it had fell off their trailer. Guy number two runs up to the sidewalk spots it and goes “oh yeah that one is one of ours” Then gives me the stink eye the entire time as I drove off.

Sounds like the landscapers got a new leaf blower.

I've found lots of things over the years along the roads, moreso when I was riding road bikes a lot. We once found a roll of money, $200+/-, in a huge parking lot. No way to find the owner, we gave it to our church.
 
Sounds like the landscapers got a new leaf blower.
For sure. Which in a way makes me feel like a sucker for telling them about it but then again it was not mine in the first place and had it been theirs in my mind it would have been more along the lines of stealing than finding something that someone lost.
 
advised me that I needed to drop off the mower behind City Hall since it was not mine and that he would follow me there to ensure I did so
It's not your obligation to truck stuff to City Hall. If the cop is saying that you can't keep it, that means that he (as an agent of the City) has to deal with it. Leave it right there.
 
found plenty of tools over the years, probably the best thing was a tool belt with just about everything in it minus the hammer. tool belt looked fairly new and some of the tools did too
 
About 3 years ago I was driving my golf cart by the highway and was the cowling fly off of an outboard motor. Sucker was big and we had a pretty hefty cross wind. Well luck was in his favor as it landed on some taller weeds and no damage was done, not even a scratch. I did see it was a blue Ford with a mounted tool chest in the bed. I posted on FB if anyone lost a cowling that morning. If they could tell me the Make & HP of the motor and what color truck was pulling the boat it was theirs! 2 days later a very happy dude and his wife arrived at my house to get their 2019 Yamaha 250HP cowling -- dude said that if he had to buy a new one it was almost $1000! He did reward me!
 
Turning left at a busy T-intersection one day, I noticed a pistol lying in the middle of the opposite lane, right where a vehicle would have turned the corner to go uphill. I called the police about that one.

When I'm running, I'll pick up change. I also pick up nails and screws and drop them down the nearest storm drain. All tools I've found in the road have already been run over a few times.
 
Stuff I've found in the road:

$30. (at age 9!) Dad made me spend $20 of it on my new big-boy bike. Last time I ever told him I found anything. BTW he paid me 50c a week for allowance because "it was the same that my grandpa paid him."

14" Buick Hubcap that fit my cutlass ciera just fine.
16" HHR hubcap that exactly fit my HHR.
A dorcy LED flashlight. Sadly, while being "clever", I backed over it before opening my car door and retrieving it. Didn't work.
A dorcy rubberized 2D cell incandescent light. Worked fine.
A wallet with ID and money. Called the cops. They came in ~20 minutes then grilled me as to where I found it. They were either dumb or acted dumb when I said, follow this road down to the gazebo, make a 90 degree right angle, it was in the ditch. ID address was well across town.

Another wallet with ID and money-- a student ID. Turned it in at the police station. Easier time.

Found a wallet with ID at a Pink Floyd concert, turned it into the most responsible adult I could find-- a travelling t-shirt vendor with his own tent.

The general protocol here for stuff like hubcaps is to try to figure out what direction they came from, and to prop them up on a telegraph pole so the driver, if a repeat commuter, would see his stuff and stop for it.
 
As a 10-year-old newspaper delivery boy, I found a pair of glasses with a name on them. Took it to the address and gave them the glasses. Later that night the dad came to my home, thanked me and gave my $10 or 20 (don't remember but big money in 1 1948).
 
Around 25 years ago, I found a binder pry bar along with a NIB Snap-On drill extractor set in the street a few houses down. No one in the neighborhood drove a service truck or hauled with a trailer, so I kept both. Used the pry bar at work (left it there when I departed). I still have the extractor set. It's still NIB.
 
The only things I have ever found were a roll of duct tape in an intersection, I was on my motorcycle so just reached down and grabbed it and not long ago found a 14mm combination wrench in the street near my hose. I put it in my toolbox with 3 or 4 more others of the same size I already had.....
 
I found a record player down the street from my Cabin. Mixed in with some ancient home PC stuff.
Drove by it for a couple days. Later it was still there. Grabbed it.

Once home, I noticed it had a type G mains plug so guess it's 230v.
Tone arm looks cheap. So, off to the dump it will go.
Oh, but I did take off the headshell and it had a good looking vintage ADC phono cartridge on it and the needle looked good from a distance. Saved for later.
 
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