A dilemma indeed.

Damn! Too slow!

Ignore it. Or else get revenge by doing something illegal that won't be traced back to you, after a substantial amount of time has passed.

Ask him if you can borrow 15 bucks and make up a story that'll make him feel bad about why you need it. Don't be accusatory, though.

A druggie?

Help the ATF with a sting operation and send his ass to juvie. That will teach him!

@ Sacred, you don't expect he'll fall for something like that, do you?

It's 100% presentation. Like all lies.

I don't doubt that I could try to lie, but if I happen to ask for the exact amount, do you think that he could see through it even if I was Chuck Christ?

Ignore it. Replacing the ID and the wallet would have cost you that much in cash and hassle. Consider it a finder's fee and move on.

Oh, and unless he picke dyour pocket, it wasn't even petty theft. He was under no obligation legally to return the found property. He was just stupid for laying it on someone else and providing so much detail.

A friend got pick-pocketed in the West Bank once. The Palestinian brought him back the wallet, empty, telling him he'd "dropped it." Surrounded by a crowd, there was no option but to say "thank you" to the thief. But, on another side, the thief didn't have to bring it back. In the end my friend lost his money, but at least he still kept a lot of things. So a thief with honor?

What can you do? At least you got your drivers' license and photos back. So while you may not say thanks, just move on. The guy could have just thrown it in a trash can and you'd have never known. So he took a risk to only steal part of your stuff, actually "helping you" in his druggie mind. It could have been worse. {though I like the idea of borrowing $15 from him!}

That is not accurate, Draugnar. The money did not stop belonging to the OP just because he had dropped it.

Heyyyy.... it just occurred to me that maybe your girlfriend took your wallet, pocketed the $15, and then made up the story to cover her tracks.

Heard the phrase "posession is 9/10ths of the law"? Finding a wallet, cleaning it out, and dumping it is not a criminal offense. Not even a misdemeanor. Not to say it isn't morally questionable, but the legalities of the situation is, he didn't break any laws as long as he didn't pick pocket him.

Draugnar, you're wrong. One of the many characteristics of the phrase 'possession is 9/10ths of the law" is that it is a phrase, not a law. If somebody finds your car in a parking lot and takes off with it, are they in possession so it's OK? No, it turns out real life actually has more subtle details.

You might see the following web pages for a nice primer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost,_mislaid,_and_abandoned_property

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100609110306AAVo5K1

Regards,
semck83 (Esquire)

As to OP, whatever you do, don't get illegal revenge. There's nothing that will so quickly take you off the moral high ground as becoming as bad as he is. Plus, you might get caught.

I kind of like the borrowing idea, though I don't really see it working. You could report it, and there is nothing wrong with doing so, but be prepared for the further anger when nobody takes it seriously. (Though they might, but it's unlikely).

I'm sorry it happened, honestly. Those things are way more infuriating and upsetting than the number of remedies for them would suggest.

I said that already, I had no intent to do anything illegal.Thanks for the advice, as annoying as it is to hear. -_- Thank you!

Blah blah blah....possession blah blah blah. *PROVE* he took the money in a court of law, all your legal-eagles. lol Get over it. Your lucky you got the wallet and ID back. And if/when you seek vengeance, if he is the "druggie" (ewww!!!! scary!!!) you claim he is, has meaner, nastier friends that will up the ante. Don't be a dumb ass. Let it go.

Sorry Rommeltastic, I misread. My mistake.

@semck - I just asked my brother (a Springdale police officer) and he said finding a wallet left with no obvious owner present does not obligate the finder to attempt to return it. It is not a crime. The law differentiates base don whether the finder could reasonably expect the person who left said article to return ot it. I leave my wallet on my desk at work and it's theft. I drop it in on the floor in a public place and, unless I return and find the person with it and approach them, they have every right to keep it. And actually, the wiki page you posted says the same thing. Unless the true owner of the original item comes looking for it, you may keep it and the original owner has no recourse except to ask for it back should he come looking for it.

So, he committed no crime, even according to *your* posted links as well as according to an officer of the law.

Yeah, I'm with Krellin. Just let it go. Nothing good will come of it and it's only $15.

Good god, abge! Better get that psyche chick to check your head! You agreed with me! lol (See...I can be rational! In fact, I'm *always* rational....I just come at issues from a very different life experience than you....)

Nah, I agree with you Krellin. I'd rather hear it from you guys than from people who don't care. Though I'd appreciate if you left the sarcasm elsewhere.

olol Sarcasm? lol

Interesting story, Rommel. I was a "late bloomer". In high school I was always about the smallest kid in class. I was a "band fag" (played in the marching band"). I had friends. I had girlfriends....but I was never a "popular" guy by any means.

Well, I ended up on an World History class with a couple of Skinheads. Now, this is the mid-80's, so a skinhead, in case you don't know, was a guy who walked around with a military-style buzz-cut *way* before it became popular/normal; they typically wore black military style boots, were obsessed with Nazi symbols (though i don't give them enough intellectual credit to understand what they worshiped). They were rough, tough dudes....and, incidentally, they were arch-nemesis's with the burn-outs, the druggies. The Skinheads drank....but they were not druggies....

Anyway, I sat next to the #2 man in the Skinheads, and I pulled his ass through History. I helped him out....know what I mean? and I was a straight-as-an-arrow guy. the kind the skinheads typically would hate....but I was cool with them, you know?

I remember this one time Tom, the #1 Skinhead, came into clasee with his new **rifle scope**. Get that? a red-dot RIFLE SCOPE!! He took it out and proceeded to look through it and make shooting sounds as he scoped out every single student and imagined shooting them...and then finished with the **Jewish** teacher. It was actually hillarious. (Mind you, this is WAY before Columbine.)

Here's the jist of the story....yeah, I let the #2 skinhead cheat off me, and I helped him out and never said a thing. One day I'm walking across campus and the burnouts came after me....one lived in my neighborhood and hated me for some random reason...cause he was a burnout and I was straight, I guess....and #1 skinhead saw what was happening...and he grabbed his buddies and....and I no longer had a burnout problem. skinheads were some tough motherfuckers, get it?

Some dude stole your wallet and took $15 bucks. You have an opportunity here to A. Make a mortal enemy you *do* not want; B. let it slide; C. Perhaps, in some *tactful* way gain an ally by letting him know you aren't a narc. Dude...I know...just don't do it again...along those lines.

"Honro among thieves" as the saying goes. Believe it or not, there is a code of honor amongst the criminal element...I know, I have spent time with them in various capacities. They are vengeful...and yet sometimes they can turn loyal, or at least nuetral, if you know what I mean.

Just something else to consider.

@Draug,

And I'm a lawyer. Now let's see what the law actually says.

First, the site I linked, on wikipedia. You misstated it. It's correct that the law differentiates based on whether the owner left it where he might expect to find it again (mislaid property), or where he would not (lost property). Here is a quotation from the "lost property" section:

"Most jurisdictions have now enacted statutes requiring that the finder of lost property turn it in to the proper authorities; if the true owner does not arrive to claim the property within a certain period of time, the property is returned to the finder as his own, or is disposed of."

Now let's see some example of actual laws. A nice summary is provided here: http://www.animallaw.info/articles/ovuslostdogpropertystatutes.htm

Let's turn to Connecticut, as an example:

"Any person who finds and takes possession of any article of the value of one dollar or more shall report the finding of such article to the police department of the municipality in which he finds such article within forty-eight hours from the time of such finding.... Any person who violates or fails to comply with the provisions of this section shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars or imprisoned not more than thirty days or both."

There are not statutory laws everywhere, of course. However, it would be normal theft to take a wallet that was just considered mislaid, and in fact, such is the case here. OP indicated he lost the wallet in class. What does the article say about mislaid property?

"Under common law principles, the finder of a misplaced object has a duty to turn it over to the owner of the premises, on the theory that the true owner is likely to return to that location to search for his misplaced item."

Is OP's school lost and found a place where he might reasonably be expected to go to find the wallet? Yes. See here for a description of a case where somebody was succesfully charged with grand larceny for keeping the money from a wallet that he found in a store:

http://law.slu.edu/journals/LawJournal/pdfs/Simeone_Article.pdf

In short, it is extremely irresponsible to suggest that it is fine and legal to keep the money one finds in a wallet. In some states it is explicitly, statutorily illegal and punishable by jail. In all, it risks being normal larceny, especially in circumstances such as these, and in all, once the owner is found, he has the right to the money, so keeping it from him then by lying would be larceny by trick.

I can't, of course, answer for the practices of the Springdale police force, but such is the law.

@semck....dude. get a fucking life. If I turn a wallet into the school office and the money is gone, but everything else is there, PROVE I STOLE THE FUCKING MONEY. For that matter, PROVE THERE WAS EVER FUCKING MONEY IN THE WALLET TO BEGIN WITH.

For fuck's sake...you claim you are a fucking lawyer????? Good god....ambulance chasing fool, no doubt, because you certainly can't figure out the basics lack-of-facts associated with a school-wallet case. Moron.

Oh...wait...I know where the money it. It is in semck's fucking pocket, because that asshole just charged you $250/hr to tell you that you don't really have a case, despite what the law says.

Asshole.

@krellin, yo. You'll notice that I nowhere claimed that a case could actually be made out. Go ahead, reread it. See where I say that you could press this case and win? Oh, wait, no you don't. I say drop it. Oops.

Draugnar said that keeping the money WAS NOT ILLEGAL. As you doubtless know, since you've heard of things like evidence, there's a difference between something being illegal and being able to prove something. You're right, making out the case would be impossible usually (although it has happened, and at the felony level, as in the article I linked).

However, there are some people who care whether something is illegal or not, so I wanted to clarify that, no, this behavior is illegal.

Ohio has no such law with regards to lost property according to your own link. Nor does Kentucky, where I currently reside. In fact, only 18 (out of 50, or just over 1/3rd) states have a law regarding lost property. What my brother answered to had nothing to do with the lying after the fact and my statement said he would have committed no crime had he just kept it which is true based on where I live and where my brother is a police officer (Kentucky and Ohio respectively). Considering his primary duty is mall law enforcement (he's a bit more than Paul Blart: Mall Cop) and he deals with pickpockets, pursesnatchers, and shoplifters on a day-to-day basis, I'll trust his experience and statements over some stranger on the internet claiming to be an attorney.