Has anybody lost a find because you posted it?

Buried Crap NJ

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Posted on any forum or even loose lips locally.I don't want to know what you would do if someone came knocking. I don't want to here about the laws.I want to know if after posting a find or telling one too many, someone filed a claim it was there's, and you had to give it back. I know there's all kinds of ways around the whole deal. I do know there are lots of folks just wanting to make a return, and yes I have also. But I want to make it on my terms. I want to go find you, not you coming to find me. I have always made a reasonable effort to see if the lost and found has the item I found. I also will note this opens all kinds of scruples. We all love to post our finds and so many of the finds have been lost such a long time that its nearly impossible to prove who owns it.Most were taught that if its not yours you should return it. We have all lost something! I have viewed great heart warming school rings returns and that's great. I also viewed 2 carrot diamonds being return only to find the insurance company paid on the claim and now they have two and your now SOL! I have seen more and more people stop posting there finds and there must be a reason for this. I have love this hobby for 38 yrs and have spent 10 of thousands of dollars in doing so. I am just wondering where the cut off point for return.I have found so much that can't be returned the ones that can be returned so be it. Do you bring that 50,000 dollar ring into the local police and hope it goes to the owner? Or post it as your best find ever and hope the owner or someone he knows doesn't see it. Lots of hunters have started finding services for hire and hence they are out getting paid to look for someones item. Evreything else they find is just a bonus.But one happens when they see there item posted that they have been paid to find?
Ok I opened the can of worms and My thoughts are what ever each of you decide to do is the right thing!
 

allen_idaho

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Dec 4, 2007
808
114
Culdesac, Idaho
I've never lost anything by posting it online. But I have lost things by showing them to relatives. Like when I "lost" a 6-carat uncut sapphire after my wife took it to her mom's house and showed it to her thieving cousin.
 

Treasure_Hunter

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Here are my thoughts, if it can be identified then I will return it, but it has to be identified, just because a ring looks like one someone lost doesn't mean it is the same ring.

Most rings sold are produced by the hundreds if not more and sold through chain jewelry stores through out the country. I bought a ring for my wife in Missouri, 2 years later while visiting a cousin in Florida wife and I noticed my cousin had the same ring on.

If a ring is engraved or can be identified through scratches I have no problem returning it. Just my opinion....
 

Tom_in_CA

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reply

Buried-crap, what you're talking about would be a gazillion to one odds. Because, I mean "what are the odds" that someone who lost a ring (potentially years or decades ago mind you), will just "coincidentally" be surfing T'net, and happen to see the ring he/she lost years ago?

I think the only geeks even reading forums like this are (doh!) md'rs anyhow! Do you really the general public reads here? Of course not. It's a hobby-specific forum, for persons who are into this. So I highly doubt someone's going to come on here, and recognize a band or earing, or whatever that someone else posts.





Posted on any forum or even loose lips locally.I don't want to know what you would do if someone came knocking. I don't want to here about the laws.I want to know if after posting a find or telling one too many, someone filed a claim it was there's, and you had to give it back. I know there's all kinds of ways around the whole deal. I do know there are lots of folks just wanting to make a return, and yes I have also. But I want to make it on my terms. I want to go find you, not you coming to find me. I have always made a reasonable effort to see if the lost and found has the item I found. I also will note this opens all kinds of scruples. We all love to post our finds and so many of the finds have been lost such a long time that its nearly impossible to prove who owns it.Most were taught that if its not yours you should return it. We have all lost something! I have viewed great heart warming school rings returns and that's great. I also viewed 2 carrot diamonds being return only to find the insurance company paid on the claim and now they have two and your now SOL! I have seen more and more people stop posting there finds and there must be a reason for this. I have love this hobby for 38 yrs and have spent 10 of thousands of dollars in doing so. I am just wondering where the cut off point for return.I have found so much that can't be returned the ones that can be returned so be it. Do you bring that 50,000 dollar ring into the local police and hope it goes to the owner? Or post it as your best find ever and hope the owner or someone he knows doesn't see it. Lots of hunters have started finding services for hire and hence they are out getting paid to look for someones item. Evreything else they find is just a bonus.But one happens when they see there item posted that they have been paid to find?
Ok I opened the can of worms and My thoughts are what ever each of you decide to do is the right thing!
 

TerryC

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I lost a tie clip at work in the '70s. I was a cycle cop and that HEAVY leather coat was notorious for taking tie clips off. Mine was a gold-plated pulltab. Yep. With my name etched in it. I saw another cop wearing it. He knew it was mine. And he had the nerve to wear it at work! His name wasn't Terry. He had to give it up. To me. TTC
 

OP
OP
Buried Crap NJ

Buried Crap NJ

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Tom is it really a hobby-specific forum when T-net has a lost and found with people signing up asking if anyone found my ring lost at ?????? I not against returns, but like stated above there are so many like items how is one to know what one is theres. But I really wanted t know if its happened. Not what each of us choses to do with our finds. This just came up in a conversation the other day where a buddy posted a ring found and someone saw it posted on a semi private forum and said it was theres. It was a non discript ring!
 

Tom_in_CA

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buried-crap, sure "anything's possible". So too might you be attacked by bees or a 747 crash here, etc.... It *might* happen. And sure, there's an occasional post by a non-md'r asking for help in finding a ring. But to jump from that .... to them trolling the "finds" section of our forums, and then coincidentally seeing their object by someone else posting their daily bragging rights, is a million to one. I mean, the timing would have to be incredibly crazy remote. The odds are, that md'r would be doing such a thing within the hours, days, or week or two following their loss (and this is a big assumption, to begin with, that they'd ever have the notion to even go to any particular md'ing forum, to begin with!). And then this assumes that their items *just happened* to be found right in that exact same time frame (which, as we know, our items can have been there months or years!). And also assumes that the person finding is a forumite who likes to post his daily gloating boast for his peers.

I mean, the extreme odds of all these things lining up together, is just too remote to worry about.
 

Frankn

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Some people are just looking to get your find. I pulled a nice heavy 14k mens gold wedding band out of the surf at OC Md. A guy was watching me detect and walked up and said, Hay you found my wedding band. I held the ring up hand print-2_edited-3.jpg to the light to see the inside and said, mind telling me the inscription? He turned and walked away. Actually, there was no inscription!
 

Steveo

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With all the honest people in this world today we should never run into this problem..................:laughing7:
 

jeff of pa

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Tom is it really a hobby-specific forum when T-net has a lost and found with people signing up asking if anyone found my ring lost at ?????? I not against returns, but like stated above there are so many like items how is one to know what one is theres. But I really wanted t know if its happened. Not what each of us choses to do with our finds. This just came up in a conversation the other day where a buddy posted a ring found and someone saw it posted on a semi private forum and said it was theres. It was a non discript ring!

no I don't remember this happening to me.

the odds would be astronomical but I believe it will or has happened to at least one person.
of course the item may just be identical to theirs.



after all what are the odds on being struck by Lightening & how many people on earth have been struck ?

North Carolina man struck by lightning for 3rd time, survives - NY Daily News

so yes anything is possible.

but not likely
 

Last edited:

AC1955

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Jeff, what's up with Post #10???
 

AC1955

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Thanks! Notice some of these type of posts cropping up on other forum boards. I'll just report them as I come across them if that's okay.
 

jeff of pa

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Thanks! Notice some of these type of posts cropping up on other forum boards. I'll just report them as I come across them if that's okay.


Yes Please ! hit report
 

TENNESSEEGAL

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Aug 20, 2005
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I remember reading a thread buy a guy who pulled a ring from his scoop and was confronted by a big aggressive guy who had been watching him and who said the ring belonged to his wife. I don't remember all the details but I remember he dropped it in his pouch and pulled out a cheap dime store ring, tossed it into the surf and "Go get it" I've never forgotten this post. Lol. Wish I could find it again.
 

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