It Pays To Look Down When Walking In And Out Of Stores...

[Critterhunter]

Recently that's paid off twice for me. Well, not in any monetary gain, but in the satisfaction of finding something somebody lost and giving it back to them. About a week ago I headed up to the local library and found a driver's license in the parking lot and located the owner inside. Today I headed to the same library to return some books and once again watching my feet as I walked I found some body's keys, and once again located him inside to give them back.

About a year or two ago I was in a gas station and I overheard a woman asking if anybody had found a gold necklace. On my way out I was watching my feet as I made my way back to my truck and found the necklace. It was thin but very heavy so it must have been a high K value. I looked around and saw here in her car getting ready to leave. I walked over and asked her to describe it (very important if you find a ring on the beach as people will scam you that way) and she did, so I handed it over to her. She almost cried and said it was the last thing her dad bought her before he died, so that was well worth any reward I might have got by keeping and scrapping it, so I'm glad she hadn't left. Whenever I find a ring when detecting I hope it doesn't have a name on it or a way to identify it, because my conscience wouldn't let me keep it otherwise until I made every effort to locate the owner.

I've read of guys finding gold rings in parking lots as the snow banks melt away. Makes sense since the snow plow would push them into the pile with the snow, and I could see people losing a ring due to their hands shriveling up from the cold, or pulling one off by accident as they pull their keys out of their pocket. In the past a few times I've drove around parking lots as the snow piles melted and seen if I could spot a ring that has been exposed but no luck so far.

 

[OBX Franz]

Some places must get more stuff dropped than others. I found a roll of stamps on the ground when I was walking to my car one day. Less than a year ago, I found a hoop ear ring less than 1 parking spot away from where I found the stamps. Ear ring was titanium, and had been driven over once or twice, but it's one for the collection.

 

[Critterhunter]

At that same library about a year ago I found a junk ring right by the front door. I think it pulled off their hand when they were pulling on the door handle to open it.

 

[markupstateny]

I few months ago I pulled into a parking lot of a Pizza Hut to eat dinner. I found a wallet on the ground. I opened it up to see if there was ID in it and there was. It was a woman's wallet. Inside was over $600 in $100 bills, plus other bills too. A total of $675. There was not phone number in the wallet, but I found her number on the Internet as it was not listed. I called and left a message for her to call me as I may have something of hers. She called and didn't know what I was talking about. I asked her if she was at a Pizza Hut that day and she said yes. I asked her if she lost anything and she said "No". I asked her if she was sure and gave her a hint or two. Then she described the wallet perfectly and everything inside. It was her rent money for the month. She started crying on the phone and I didn't know why. Come to find out the her husband was in a car accident and was in the hospital, her son was in the car too at the time of the accident and died in the accident. She has had such a bad time the few months before, that she could not believe something GOOD happened.
I met her a hour later and returned the wallet. She had her daughter with her and they were both crying. She offered me a number of things for returning the wallet to her. Just knowing I made her happy for a few minutes that day was enough for me. She called me two times after that and still offered a reward, I turned them both down. Sure made me feel good returning that wallet. I still smile about it when I drive by that Pizza Hut or think about it.

 

[Critterhunter]

You've earned a bunch of karma points with that one my friend. Great story...

 

[John(Tx)]

A couple of years ago my wife found a 14k gold ring in the Walmart parking lot. About 15 years ago I found a 10k gold class ring while waiting at a railroad crossing while the train was going by. I was getting bored waiting on the train, looked out to the side by my door and there it was along with a bunch of cigarette butts where someone emptied out their ash tray, true story...HH

 

[Critterhunter]

I bet they threw the ring off their hand when throwing a cigarette out the window. One of my relatives in another state told me he was throwing wood on a pile one time and he ended up throwing his gold ring right off his finger. He said he looked but couldn't find it. If I ever make it to his state I'm going to search for it for him as it's on his property right where he kept the wood pile.

One time I was at Walmart and overhead a women saying her son's girlfriend was at Walmart with him arguing in the parking lot and she threw this $10,000 engagement ring into one of the grass strips between parking lanes. I asked her if they would like me to go find it for them but she refused to tell me anything about which Walmart like I was trying to "steal" or something. Makes no difference to me. Just doesn't make sense that you'd rather that ring never be found rather than take a chance on trusting somebody to return it. What have you got to lose?