About these Coin Star return slot "pickups" . . .

Mercfan

I had (what I thought was) a very cool find in a local grocery store last week. I was leaving the store and noticed that the coin return slot of the Coin Star machine was brimmiing with coins. I started scooping them out (into my pocket), and found that there were so many that they were piled well up into the machine--without room to descend into the tray at the bottom.

I took them home and found that there were hundreds of coins in the batch: almost four rolls of U.S. cents (four wheaties); a bunch of U.S. quarters, dimes, and nickels; and just over four dollars worth of Canadian cents, nickels, dimes, and quarters. The star of the show was a 1942 Mercury dime (the only silver coin in the lot).

I couldn't resist reporting this windfall at the dinner table that evening, which renewed our family's long-running debate regarding the ethics of helping oneself to items left behind in the Coin Star return slot.

My wife and daughters think it amounts to taking possession of property that belongs to others. I think it amounts to taking possession of abandoned property to which any "finder" has as much legal and ethical right as anyone else (including the owners or servicers of the Coin Star machine itself).

So what do any of you who have a considered opinion about this behavior think? Is cleaning out the left-behinds in the Coin Star machine ethical or unethical? Is it ethically any different from picking up and taking possesion of coins that one finds on public sidewalks and streets? Is it ethically any different from picking up and taking possession of coins that one finds on the floor in the aisle of a store?

(By the way, I agree with my wife and daughters--and probably all the other wives and daughters out there--that there may be something penny-pinching, undignified, uncool, unfashionable, unsophisicated, and potentially embarrassing about this behavior. But I still wonder specifically about the ethics of the behavior.)

Care to contribute to our dinner-table discussions?

Casman

Oh that's silly, the rule is finders keepers...but if you find yourself hanging out on the weekends by the coinstar machine...well, that's another matter...

kranky

I consider myself a stickler for ethical behavior, and I see nothing wrong with rescuing abandoned coins in a Coinstar machine. It's no different from picking up a coin on the street.

If there was a way of returning the coins to the person who put them through the machine, that would be a different story. Let's say a person was feeding the machine and you came by and saw coins going into the return bin - you could point that out. But in your scenario, the coins have been abandoned. Let's say YOU were putting coins into the machine and when you were finished you found some coins in the return bin. Would anyone think you should try to filter out the coins which might have been yours, and leaving any others behind? I doubt it. I don't see what you did to be any different.

partagas

Finders keepers, abandoned property.

I have yet to find a single coin in the tray at my store. I don't think anyone uses the machine.

ElKevvo

I go with the finders keepers rule...if there is no one around it is the same IMO uneducated opinion as finding a couple of quarters in the parking lot or on the floor next to the machine.

Here is a little story...my kids always go and check the coin star, most times without luck but occasionally there is a couple of pennies in there and they get excited about it. One day we we were in the local Tom Thumb and my four year old son checked the coin star and there was some money in it. One of the clerks who works at the store noticed him getting the coins out and physically took them from him. My son was so upset he was crying for the next hour. I confronted the lady and asked her to apologize to my son...she wouldn't as she felt she had done nothing wrong. Her point of view was that they were not hers to take....what did she do with the coins? Put them in a donation bucket. I mentioned to her that if they were not my son's to take then why did she feel that they were her's to take? She told me 'This conversation is finished'. The manager, who witnessed the whole thing, offered to pay for my 16.00 or so in groceries but I declined. I was so ticked off that an adult would do that to a little kid. I know for 100% she would never have done that to an adult! If I was a more uptight person I would have called the police and filed assault charges...let her explain to the cops why she had to take a few cents away from a child! Never really go back to that store...I did a few weeks ago and the manager noticed me and apologized again and said the employee was wrong. I am sort of still mad about the incident! Wow...typing this got me worked up...gotta move on!!

Anyway I talked to a friend of mine who is a bit more conversant in these things and his opinion was that it was 'abandoned property' and should be turned into the authorities....but most likely if you walked into the police station with 27 cents and wanted to report it they would tell you to keep it. More $ spent in paperwork etc. than it is worth. I suppose if you found a 93S MS Morgan you should do this but for everything we have ever found it goes into a jar for ice cream one weekend when we have enough.

Later!

K

Mercfan

<< <i>If there was a way of returning the coins to the person who put them through the machine, that would be a different story. Let's say a person was feeding the machine and you came by and saw coins going into the return bin - you could point that out. But in your scenario, the coins have been abandoned. >>



I agree, and that is why many of us would also agree with Casman's reservation about hanging around the machine (presumably waiting to rush in and grab returns without pointing them out to the people who use the machine as one lurks and watches).

Thus, (as I argue with my wife and daughters) once the user of the machine walks away andn doewn't return for them, the coins in the return tray are abandoned property.

My wife and daughters, however, wonder about the time at which these left-behind coins really become "up for grabs." Suppose I'm eagerly helping myself to the leftovers of two hours before when the person who dumped them and forgot to check the return tray comes back (having remembered she forgot to check the return tray)? Suppose I'm helping myself to the leftovers when the person who dumped them remembers (thirty seconds after walking away), and does a U-turn back into the store to see if she left anything in the tray?

Obviously, the key consideration is whether or not the property is really "abandoned."

Weiss

They aren't coinstar's: They haven't paid anything for them. This is an important distinction.

They aren't the store's: they get paid proceeds from accepted coins. They don't make anything from rejected coins. And they certainly aren't entitled to them any more than any other random party would be (which is exactly why the clerk in ElKevvo's story was 100% wrong).

They belonged to the individual who put them in the machine--but they lost their ownership the second they walked away from them. And it would be virtually impossible to give them back to their original owner--if they even wanted them.

These are finders keepers.

AUandAG

It's better than Dumpster Diving! I've found one once that had $44 plus in the return!
Fun to do and I've found a bit of silver, lots of canadian and wheaties as well. Go for
it MercFan!

bob

rbf

<< <i>One of the clerks who works at the store noticed him getting the coins out and physically took them from him. >>

What a witch that clerk was... I hope the store manager reprimanded / fired her.

doh

Finders keepers...at least when it comes to change. It's common sense...if you find a bag with $10,000 in it...yeah, report that. A few bucks in change...that's yours to keep.

SaorAlba

If someone was walking from the machine and left coins there, that would make me tell them they have coins there. Otherwise, who knows whose coins those are other than your own at the moment.

Type2

WoW, I never cherrypick a coin star machine good for you.