Can I get your opinions?

http://news.yahoo.com/woman-lost-ark-lotto-ticket-entitled-1m-001711454.html

For me, when I find something in the trash, it is just that.
If it later turns out to be worth something, that's just gravy on the potatoes.
Some friends collect junk and scrap. Can somebody that pitched out an aluminum pop can come around later and demand that he give them what it brought him from the scrap dealer?
Finders keepers is what I have heard all my life.

 

Finders keepers is only valid when your like 5 :-D and that isn't exactly legal (at least not here). If someone finds something of value on the street, the are obligated to turn it into the police then if no one claims it, then they can have it back. If you don’t and the owner/police somehow track you down, you can get arrested for theft, receiving stolen property, etc.

I just read an article the other day of this woman who watched a man accidentally drop cash out of his pocket. She, instead of being a decent human being and returning the money, picks up his cash, looks around to see if anyone saw her and then bolts out the door. Due to there being cameras in the store they were in, she was quickly arrested. Now a few people were screaming “finders keepers” but it was flat out theft she SAW him drop it.

Now I don’t know Arkansas laws on things like this (I would think a winning lottery ticket would be a thing of value??) but I would imagine the burden of proof would on the woman who first claimed she bought the ticket and threw it away, and since she didn’t/couldn’t I think the judge was wrong in awarding her the money.

 

Wondering what type of deal the whiners, ooops, winners lawyer cut with the judge.

 

Maybe he would get a cut or was friends with the lawyer. When the other woman's lawyer appeals, they should get a different judge. Hopefully one with some common sense.

 

Amen.

 

That is truly ridiculous. I like that the store owner and manager tried to get in on it too. It was their trash can so I guess some lawyer figured the trash was their property? It would be one thing if the lady accidentally threw out something like her bracelet when she threw out her garbage. It's completely something else to throw something away on purpose and then cry that you want it back.

 

Well, I suppose that the other side of the story is that without the woman who found the winning ticket, no one would have anything. Is she therefore entitled to at least half? That would be a bit fairer, i.m.o.
The store owner trying to cash in on it is just greed. Following the store owner's argument, one would have to pay them a cut if you happened to buy a winning ticket, just because it USED to be their property BEFORE it was purchased. Don't see store owners reimbursing people if they lose, do we? Ridiculous pure greed there, i.m.o.rolleyes
That's why over here, the lottery ticket bins are sealed, with just a little slot in the top to insert your 'Losing' ticket. Once it's in there, tough luck.
Yep, if I've found money and don't know who it is - then it's mine. After all, if I yell out "Who's this twenty dollar bill?", I can guarantee at least five people will suddenly be the 'owners'. If I see someone drop the money/valuables, then that's totally different. I know who's it is and can return it - which I have done many times in the past, (and also had people do for me. b.t.w.) Running out of a store with someone else's' cash is simply theft and she deserved to be arrested in that case.

 

I agree with what Dyamond said no one throws valuable things away on purpose,no one throws winning lottery tickets away on purpose.

If they can prove its their can and they didn't mean throw it out I don't see why not:confused

Imagine if your spring cleaning and some of your valuable possessions like a family heirloom get's accidentally put next to the trash,can anyone who comes along just take it and keep it? No way.

I know in the UK the police are allowed to go through your trash looking for evidence,they can examine it and read your bills and documents but they can't keep them,they all have to be put back.

In the UK its illegal for the store owners,employee's or anyone who works within the lottery company to claim any prize.

 

Yeah, I think that's the case in just about any country, Rikky. Otherwise you would get store owners only selling dud tickets, which would truly suck! :-D.
I'm all for owners getting lost items returned, but considering the ticket was just a useless piece of paper before it was discovered, and would remain so without the fossicer's 'help', I think it's fair enough that she get rewarded some. If one finds a big bag of money that was obviously stolen from a bank, usually the insurance Co. would give out a fairly substantial reward. I know this has happened in the U.S., (I think it was quite a few hundred thousand bucks in total).
The other side is - yep I would be pissed too, if someone else was spending a million bucks of my winnings. Guess that's what the receipt stub at the Lottery stand is for, (identification). 'Scatchies' have no such safeguards, which is why I hang on to mine for a while, even when they are useless, LoL! With my luck, even if it was a two ticket lottery, I would 'prolly by the dud one .

Re: The police and trash. Over here, you still need a 'Warrant to Search' even to look through personal trash. Which is why I shred any documents/statements, etc. Not worried about cops, but I don't want any dodgey geezer gleaning any private info out of my trash.

 

Actually (and I didn't know this until recently) the store owners get a chunk of money. I read in a few articles that the places that sold the winning tickets to that giant $325 million powerball get a million dollars each (I don't know how they know what store it was, it doesn't say). So I'm guessing that store wanted a cut of the winnings.

I'm all about people getting their stuff back too, and if she could prove without a shadow of a doubt that the ticket was hers, she should get it back. However the article said that it didn't match up, so I think the other woman should get to keep it.

 

This is a double edge sword with many variables, in the example given with the lotto ticket I think it comes down to the fact the "Official" machine told her it was not a winner.
Had she have checked herself and made a mistake and thrown it away then it's trash.
But the machine gave her false info so she has a claim.

The problem has always been the same in most countries. If it's in a trash can on private property then no one has a right to go through and remove any items without permission of the owner of the property, this includes County/Municipal/Government owned trash cans in the streets.
No one really cares most of the time because it's trash right?

Now, you can't go into a city dump and just take stuff because once dumped it's often sorted and some sold for scrap etc, so taking a broken washing machine from the tip is essentially taking money right out of their pocket.
But if it's been dumped on the side of the road or in a field then I'm quite sure the owner of the property is pleased you have taken it away.... legally, it's on their property therefore they own it once the original owner has made it clear they no longer want the item.

This lotto ticket in the garbage has been done many times, it happened with Tim Hortons Roll up the Rim prize car, a woman threw it in the trash and a kid picked it up and yelled about winning, at which point the woman who threw it out turned round and claimed it as hers.
In this case I think she is completely in the wrong since she threw it away without checking.
But once again as soon as it hits a city owned trash can it belongs to the city.

I think in most cases, in most countries the "Law" will deny the finder, but should not be given to the thrower away either, with the exception of the yahoo link woman since, once again she threw it away after an official machine had said it wasn't a winner.
But the ticket belongs to the store that owns the bin, not a trash digger.

So as you can see, I see all the sides.

Legally it should go to the person who owns the property and trash can/bin.
Morally, finders keepers losers weepers, if you threw it away, then you didn't want it, you can't morally throw something away thinking it's junk and just because someone else finds it valuable you want it back, it's your own bloody fault for throwing it away.

Salvage rights if you will, you find an empty vessel at sea, you keep it, in England there's also a finders fee if you should find "Treasure" but then you have dug something up on land belonging to the government.

It's an endless argument that in this case is caused solely by the Machine giving incorrect information.

Edit: With regards to "Laws" the opinion above is given just from what I believe is correct, I realise laws vary widely, so it's not fact, just what my understanding is.

 

That part I know! It's the same way they know which part of the country the winners are in even before they claim the prize. Each store's machine puts a code into the ticket when it's sold, which tells the lottery commission where it's been purchased. The scratch-off tickets also have numbers, and when the store buys them from the lottery commission they keep track of which number range went to which store.

And yes, the store that sold the winning ticket does get a chunk. Conversely, if they don't take in enough money in sales in a given month, they can be charged for the privilege of having a machine. At least that's how it works with the stupid Club Keno machines in bars and restaurants...they are charged a certain amount of money per month to have the machines, and if their sales don't match or exceed it they have to pay the lottery commission anyway.

 

Ah okay, I didn't know that, either. The local newsagent near me recently sold a division one Lotto ticket, (had the sign up, bragging about it). I wondered why the Asian guy that owns the store bought a new BMW S.U.V. not long afterwards, (really). roflmao

 

Me either,it doesn't seem fair? Why should any part of the lottery company get any money that's above and beyond the cost of the service they provide? I wonder how many other little bonus's they treat themselves to?

EDIT If lots of companies have the right to run a national lottery then its fine,they can run their company and lottery however they wish.

It's scams like that,that make me wish our lottery wasn't run by a private company,Richard Branson but a bid in to run the English lottery as completely non profit with the most going to charity and much higher prizes but he lost to a company called Camelot who takes a huge profit,no doubt Camelot greased the wheels on that one.

Why should profit be made from money that is guaranteed every week,for little or no service/produce and only one private company have the license to do so? Wrong thread I know so rant over:-D

 

Original owner should get it. The machine erroneously failed the ticket, or the clerk had something to do with it. The clerk knew it wasn't her own ticket. There must have been enough evidence for the judge to rule as he did. Finders keepers is wrong unless the found item isn't claimed. This whole thing seems similar to people thinking they're entitled to receiving too much change in a transaction. It's immoral at the least.

 

Pretty spot on when it comes to the law...