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I'll admit when I decided to buy my detector I had one thought on my mind was finding old coins and lost jewelry. Not starting a recovery business, sure if my neighbor says hey I lost something can u help me I will. But If I pull a ring or something outta a park that's down 6" it's been there for a while and it's mine. Finders keepers losers wheepers.
And don't forget, there's persons who've had bad experiences trying to return something track-able. I personally know a fellow who found a class ring. It appeared to have just been recently lost, because all he did was get the signal, look down, part the grass, and it was just barely hidden in the grass. He tracked the owner, which turned out to be a neighbor just down the street. So when he went to call the house though, all he got was a voice-mail. So he left a message saying "I have your ring, if you want it, come see me down the street, blah blah". That night, when he sat down to dinner with his family, guess who came knocking at his door? THE POLICE! Turned out, the home had been a victim of a break-in, and this was one of the items missing (the thief must've dropped it crossing the school yard as his exit). Apparently the voice-mail had sounded like an extortion attempt? (perhaps he didnt' specifically say in the voice-mail "found with detector"?). My friend tried to explain to the police that he'd only found it while metal detecting, but he could tell, in the look in their eyes, that it was one of those "sure buddy, whatever" dis-belief. They took the ring, and said they'd be in contact with him later, if they had more questions.
For the next several weeks, my friend didn't know whether he was now suspect in a crime, or whether he should call the neighbors to try to explain further, or what. They neighbor never came by to say thankyou, nothing, nada. From then on, my friend never looked at the intials inside a ring thereafter.
Of course, hopefully that's the exception to the rule. But ... this subject has come up before on the forums, and apparently, this is not unique. There are other situations that were similar (persons demanding that it be mailed to them at the md'rs expense, etc....).
