If you found $1,000 on the ground, would you turn it over the police... or quietly pocket it?
According to a recent survey, a majority of Detroiters (62%) would keep it — leading its authors to deem the Motor City the “most dishonest city in the U.S.”
Of course, these surveys should always be taken with a grain of salt. (This one was produced by bestcasinosites.net, an online ranking of casino websites.) The survey was sent to 6,610 Americans across the country, and found overall 47% would keep the money.
In the rankings, Detroit was closely followed by Memphis and New Orleans (both also 62%), followed by Baltimore (59%) and San Antonio (58%). Meanwhile, the most honest cities, according to the study, are Jacksonville (38%), Los Angeles (39%), Tulsa (39%), Atlanta (39%), and Miami (41%).
According to the survey, people in Boston, Fresno, Minneapolis, San Jose, and Denver were all evenly split at 50-50.
The survey’s authors noted that every state has laws requiring the return of money or property if it’s possible to identify the owner, so if that $1,000 was found in, say, a wallet, you cannot legally take it.
“The results certainly demonstrate an extremely interesting insight into whether Americans would or would not keep money found on the street but I think this has raised a bigger question; do people know this is an offence?” bestcasinosites.net online slots and statics expert Kiera Miller said in a statement. “Whilst pocketing money on the street has parallels to winning the jackpot, it can be classed as theft and unfortunately, ‘finders keepers’ won’t hold up in a court of law.”
While this may be the letter of the law, we think Detroit should get a break here. The city has a poverty rate of about 30%, nearly three times the national average, according to the University of Michigan, and the Detroit Police Department doesn’t exactly have a reputation for honesty. From 2003 to 2014, DPD was under federal oversight due to allegations of excessive use of force, illegal arrests, and improper detention. It was also revealed in recent years that former DPD chief James Craig was never even a licensed law enforcement officer in Detroit, despite promising through a spokesperson that he would attain certification, Michigan Radio reported.
So look, we’ll keep it real — if we saw you pick up a band off the ground in Detroit, no we didn’t.
Subscribe to Metro Times newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
