I am constantly stooping down and picking up things off the ground: pennies, nickels, dimes, dollars, and twenty dollar bills. I also like to pick up Starbucks cards because, hey-you never know if there is left over money on the card. I’ve lost my Starbucks card before and it had money on it. It was just a matter of time before I stumbled upon a good one.
Monday was that day.
I ordered my drink and walked over to the coffee bar. Put in a splash of cream, 2 sugars in the raw, and some cinnamon. I glanced down and saw a Starbucks card by the trash can. Hey, that one might have some change on it! So, I reached down and picked it up and didn’t give it a second thought for the rest of the day.
On Tuesday morning I went to Starbucks and ordered my cub of joe. I stumbled in half asleep preparing for the long commute. In front of me was a homeless man searching for change to pay for his coffee. I shifted a little impatiently as I want to get my caffeine fix. He moved on and sat down to enjoy his drink in the shop.
The barista and I joked a little bit after I placed my order and then I remembered to use my found card. I told him that there probably isn’t anything on the card because I had picked it up off the floor.
He swiped the card and the the drink was paid-surprising me! I took my receipt with me and walked over to get my cream and sugar, then I looked at the receipt.
It had over $100 dollars LEFT ON THE CARD!! Holy SH$T! Wow.
A $100 Dollar Gift Card!
I was on cloud nine. I couldn’t believe my good fortune. I had to pay it forward. I decided to buy a gift card for the homeless man for $20. Then, I moved the rest of the money onto a new card for me.
Later on though I felt badly. Should I have taken that card back to the original Starbucks and turned it in? I am the person who ALWAYS turns in wallets, keys, glasses, and anything else that I find. I’m not sure if my love of the product affected my moral barometer? Was I wrong to keep the card that I found on the floor by the trash can? Or, should I have returned it? In a life filled with working hard to do the right thing was this an ethical or moral stumble?
Recently another blogger asked the following question: If your atm gave you extra money what would you do? I’ve had that happen before and I returned the money to the bank-causing a lot of confusion because they had never had someone return extra money from the ATM. In fact, there was no protocol on how to deal with it and I was basically left begging them to TAKE THE FREAKING MONEY BACK!! It was really surprising and really annoying.
Is this the same thing? I knew the last place that the previous card owner had been. I could have returned it. This time I didn’t and I’m left wondering if I was wrong.
At least I bought the homeless guy a $20 card to balance out the chi.
What would you have done in this situation?
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No qualms here in finding a card on the floor. They should have registered it…. then they wouldn’t have lost the balance even though they lost the card.
Anyway, it’s like finding $20 on the floor or $100. To me, it’s cash. Unless it’s a wallet with someone’s name on it, or other equally identifiable property, it’s all good karma to me.
Well, I figured that I had the card overnight and if it was registered the person could have reported the card lost. I have my gold Starbucks card registered so if I lost it I would contact Starbucks. I am over my angst about it because I also bought the card for the homeless gentleman.
Yeah, that’s basically my line of thinking.
Well, no point in feeling guilty now as I’ve already begun using it! LOL.
My husband is always finding coins too. He has found $20 twice, $10 once and even a 20£ note in London. I find it funny. He never feels guilty though. Once l found almost $200 in Disneyland. I turned it in and my friends laughed at me because they knew the employees were just going to keep it. I wouldn’t feel bad about it..the person who lost it probably wouldn’t remember where they had lost it.
I also found a gold dollar that day. I find a lot of money and have been lucky in that where I’ve found it before there is no question that I can keep it. This time it was a little bit in the grey area.
This is a tough one! For me, I tend to keep what I find unless it is a huge amount, in something that would identify the owner, or I saw the person lose it. If it is a business, I tend to keep mum unless it is a small business I care about. Karma, right?
The fact that I feel a bit conflicted means that this fell in the middle ground for me. I think next time I will return the card and then see if I would get the card if it’s not claimed. To be fair, I was 45 miles from the original shop and it was morning. I wasn’t thinking too clearly until I had the first cup of coffee :/
I would have gone back to the starbucks and ask if anyone had come in and asked about a lost card. Chances are that person wouldn’t but if they did I’d feel good having at least made the effort. I did once find an extra $20 at an atm that was inside a store. I walked up to the store manager and told him what happened and he said it happens all the time and to take it and not worry about it. I did, but I felt guilty. What if they came back in? I sort of half tried I guess but I still felt bad.
What you talk about is my normal m.o. so why I deviated from what I normally do I just don’t know. I’m glad that I bought a gift card for the homeless man to balance out the chi. I have returned extra money spat out to me from my ATM (that was a hassle) I help old people who have fallen and can’t get up, I’m that person.This time I deviated from my normal m.o. Food for thought.
Giving a guy a $20 gift card doesn’t balance out the chi. So you spent some, you can still return the card. Well, by now you’ve probably spent all of it and so that’s that. But you should have just left it alone.
At this point I’m not too worried about it.
I found a Starbucks card recently as well. It was in the washer and I found it when moving my clothes to the dryer, but Steve said it wasn’t his. It had $25 on it and I kept it. Perhaps I should have turned it into the apartment, but I didn’t. Do you think I should have?
I just don’t think anyone would have gone to the front office about it because losing those cards are like losing cash-you never know where it happened.
In the past on the few occasions that I have found money, there has been nothing to identify the owner. Last winter I found a plain white envelope half buried in a snowbank that had $50 and some coupons. I knew that this was someone’s weekly grocery money, but there was nothing I could do. I was grateful though!
I really do not think it is always a good idea to turn money in randomly. For instance, if I found an envelope of money inside a grocery store, I would report it to the manager and give my phone number. If anyone called the store about lost money, the mgt could then refer him to me. Usually they would be able to identify the lost items in some way. In the past, my husband turned in some money, and he knows for a fact that it was just stolen by the wrong person. I wouldn’t worry about this if I were you. In my life, I always feel it is a gift! That was kind to play it forward!
Wow, I can’t believe you found that envelope. You were meant to find it. I did have a twinge of guilt when I actually figured out how much was on the card. Now, I’ve gotten over it!
I love that you paid it forward! I’m kind of on the fence with this one. Personally, I wouldn’t have given it to Starbucks, but if there was a considerable amount of money on it (like, over $500. but then again, who would put that much on a Sbux card???) then I would reconsider.
I just couldn’t find a gift card like that and not help someone who was clearly struggling. Hopefully it made his day. If it had been more I probably would have made a different decision.
It’s tricky. A few months ago I got home from Trader Joes and three bottles of wine that I had not purchased were in my bag. I guess they gave me the wrong bag. I returned it, which was annoying since I had to go out of my to do it.
The three bottles of wine I would have returned and I think it’s so weird that they made their way into your bag! The thing is-I found that card on the floor. It’s long now though so…
I can’t believe anyone would even ask the question. It should have been turned into Starbucks. Also, now that you have made it public, don’t expect anyone to ever trust you with anything. I sure wouldn’t. Doing penance by helping the homeless doesn’t excuse what you did either. I hope you don’t have any children. I don’t know how you can face them after what you did. Unless, you have taught them to be as dishonest as you are. SHAME!
You’re hilarious.