The other day, a man in front of me at a cash machine walked off without taking his money (£50). I went looking for him but he’d already gone, so I’ve got his cash and receipt in my wallet.
As I haven’t done anything good for a while, I thought I’d try and give it back to him.
The cash machine was a generic supermarket one operated by Barclays. I’m unwilling to hand it over to Barclays as I’ve no way of knowing it’d get back to him, particularly if he’s not one of their customers and I don’t think the police would be much use if he hasn’t reported it missing.
Other than waiting to see if I bump into him again, has anyone got any suggestions for tracking him down?

Police.

Not that it helps you this time, but should anyone come across this phenomenon in future, leave the cash. After a pre-defined period of time, the machine will take the money back in and reverse the transaction. Obviously, you may want to stand guard (for want of a better phrase) until it is sucked back in, but leave the machines to it. They know what they're doing.

Thanks I did know about the machine but i just grabbed it instinctively and went to look for him, was a bit surprised that he seemed to have disappeared so quickly to be honest. I'm going to follow Jerrychickens advice and hand it to the police, it seems the safest bet.

People do. But trust me - the software is designed to cope with just that scenario.

We used to send one bloke out with a load of dummy cards to test our ATM software and do things like that, get the machine to take the card and cancel it, all that malarkey. He was stopped so many times by the police it almost stopped being funny. Almost.

Technically removing it from the machine meant you stole it. They have CCTV on you as well and are probably already looking for you.

The whole story sounds very fishy. If, as you state, you were stood behind him while he transacted, he would have been no more than a foot away from you by the time you shouted 'You forgot the money!'. However, you clearly didn't shout, you clearly, as you state, instinctively snatched the money (No doubt pocketing it at that point). You then no doubt walked around pretending to be searching for said man. so that those other people in the queue who were now eying you suspiciously thought you were playing the kind Samaritan.

Guilty your honour.

you've just wasted several minutes of your life and you'll never get them back.

how do you forget to take your money from a cash machine!?!?!

I know he's taking the mick, but he raises an interesting point in that how did he get so far away from you so quickly when you saw he hadn't taken his money?

At least it wasn't my £50.

I've done it

fortunately it was only a tenner, but as stated the machine took the money back and my account was refunded.

Blinkin' 'eck! And I though[i I [/iwas cynical!

Well I've just handed it over to the police and they're treating it as found property, but don't have any resources to try and trace the owner despite a receipt from the cash machine. I'm also going to contact Barclays to see if they can get in touch with him, be interesting to see if they bother.

Guilty also m'lord.

I wouldn't hand it in to the police either. I think there was a case recently that somebody who handed money in that they had found would have had it returned to them but it went "awry" when he went back to claim it as his own after a period of time when it is legal to do so.

Better off in your pocket or maybe donate it to a charity or something? As far as I'm concerned its their mistake and you should do with it what you think ethical!

What the police actually did was took down the details and told me to keep hold of it. They basically said it wasn't worth the paperwork of handing it in properly. Same principle if the guy comes to claim it though.
Cynical moi?

Being a non-wallet man, hate them, I once obliviously dropped a wad of £800 cash in my local boozers toilets after a good day on the gee-gees.
The next one in the gents obviously came acoss it and came to the bar and handed it in to my mate the landlord.
He wasn't even a local and I managed to fire a couple of large malts down him as a token of my thanks.
I've lost that much cash out of my pockets I dread to think.
Just as well I don't have any money anymore.

What are you going to spend it on Keith?

He's already spunked it on a losing favourite at Newbury this afty.

Thought I'd buy you a life, you seem to be in need of one.

Good on you.

Oh how I've enjoyed stumbling across this site several years ago.

Not sure if procedures have changed but a few years back I found a purse in the street. I dropped it off at the Central Police Station expecting them to just contact the owner. It was an elderly lady and her bus pass was in it so shouldn't have been too difficult to trace her. The Old Bill kept me there while they logged the contents - bus pass, Co-op stamps and not much else. Anyway they told me before I left that if it wasn't claimed in 6 months (IIRC) then I could claim it!


I shook my head in despair and left. However, a couple of weeks later I received a letter containing a £5 postal order in which the lady said she went to the Police station on the off chance it had been handed in and was surprised to find it had been. If she hadn't chased it the Old Bill would have just bunged it in a store room somewhere. Next time I'll do my own detective work and find the owner myself.