Solved: mystery of random cash rolls appearing on sidewalks in UK village

Originally published at:


Sounds more like a social experiment than actual kindness, but I’d take the cash and thank them anyways. I have only few objections to leaving money on the sidewalk.

Much, much better than parking a bait bike somewhere and beating up would-be thieves, right?


OK, so this is what “chaotic good” in AD&D means!


I like the cut of their jib.


Wait, why is Bill Burr holding the cash tho?


[[launches into random angry rant at Philadelphians]]

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That’s a really stupid way of doing it. All they’re guaranteeing is that the money ends up with the police, or a dishonest person.

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“Or” they say. Oh my aching lulz.


I dunno. Not really a practical way to help people financially. But think about how exciting it would be to find a big wad of cash just sitting there. Very fun way to give people a good day, and a good story. And it sounds like there was not more than a couple grand in each wad.

I’m not sure about the UK, but in the USA (I think pretty much everywhere?) “finders keepers” is not actually part of the law. Finding cash and keeping it, and not turning it into the police, is considered theft.


Finding cash and not turning it in is not in itself theft. It’s only theft if it’s some one else’s money that they did not intend to leave or want back. You won’t (and probably can’t) be prosecuted for finding something and keeping it. You might be prosecuted if some one is looking for that thing and you have it and don’t give it back.

Which is absolutely not the case here. It’s also relatively common to return found property to the finder if noone claims it and there’s no indication of foul play or illegality and no possibility of finding the owner. Up to and including children.

Which is precisely what the police have indicated is going to happen here now that they know the mysterious wads of cash are not sinister. It’s not particularly well thought out but this a thoroughly fun thing to do that’s not getting anyone in trouble.

Also you’re a party pooper.


OK, this is from a rando Google search, but does indicate that local laws may indeed require larger found sums of cash to be turned over to police – potentially to be returned to the finder, if it’s not claimed within certain periods.

And you may call me a “party pooper” if you wish (and trust me – I am a party-hardy kind of guy, and hardly the pooper), but you know what? I think what they were doing was idiotic, and even reckless, if a dispute were to arise by folks who found it. You “care about a community,” or so you claim? Give the money to the damn school, or a civic org. This shit is fucking stupid. And yeah, I kind of assume they at least partially did this for the thrill value.

If you expect people to turn into violent nuts in the mere presence of money you’ve got a pretty negative outlook. Particularly in a small English village. This might surprise you but people find shit all the time and it doesn’t regularly turn into a blood bath. As exemplified by the confirmable fact that nothing of the sort happened here. People have far more legitimate disputes all the time without murdering each other, and crime is at an all time low.

What if there’s a dispute between people trying to access that charity! Charity is dangerous!

It’s certainly dumb. Like I said poorly thought out, for however fun and positive the idea of leaving good stuff for randos to find may be. Assuming all the bundles are of the same size, it’s around 1900 pounds in each. And consistently leaving wads of that amount of money in the same place over time is where this falls down. One person finding money might be expected to keep it. And should they turn it in, it’s just one lump of cash no one is looking for that will likely get handed back to them after a bit.

But each additional wad in the same location increases the likelyhood of cash being turned it. And once two or more wads are turned in to the same department it looks like something is going on. Police will request any finds be reported, at that point they likely will be. So noone will be getting money till it’s figured out. Which is exactly what happened.

That they didn’t come forward for 6 years indicates they weren’t paying close attention. Which makes thrill seeking or tipping people over to murder unlikely.

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What’s their punishment going to be?

Well, admittedly I live in Baltimore, Maryland, not a small English village. I’m sure this taints my perspective. Here, you drop bales of cash like that in the hood? People getting killed, not even a question.

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Well, heck, I guess I know where I’m moving next.


but police said that any money handed in will be returned to the finder.

as you are clearly not mean the police…could you please explain, what makes a person “dishonest” by keeping found money?

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That is a social experiment. Also,

please calm yourself, dear.

Erm. From your handle, I assume you are a native German speaker? Based in western central Europe?
You might want to check your local law on this. It is usually very specific on which value found property may not exceed if you want to legally keep it without notifying the authorities.

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Blackhall and it’s environs Is full of retired miners and hippies. Very small chance of anything worse than bored teens being rude to you.