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The Golden Rule Lives...

Quote:

BAY SHORE, New York (AP) -- A U.S. soldier and his girlfriend found a winning lottery ticket on the ground at a convenience store Monday and turned it in to police, who were able to find its owner -- a $2,500 winner with no idea her lucky ticket was missing.

Sgt. Edward Boniberger and Marnie Hall found the ticket in a plastic case at a store, Suffolk County Police said. They tried to find the woman who had signed it, but when they could not, they took it to a police station.

Detectives then located Mary Ann Doerrbecker, who had not realized she had dropped the ticket, according to Detective Sgt. Thomas Groneman.

"She was shocked," Groneman said. Doerrbecker met the couple at the Third Precinct and offered them a reward, which they declined.

"He said, 'Absolutely not,"' Groneman said.

Boniberger said he told Doerrbecker she should donate something to charity instead.

"There's people out there who need it a lot more than I do," he said.

He said he would have wanted someone else to do the same if it had been him who lost the ticket.

Boniberger, of the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, was stationed in Baghdad and returned to the United States in September 2005.

I really do hope there's a karma thing because Sgt. Boniberger definitely deserves some...

Quote:

He said he would have wanted someone else to do the same if it had been him who lost the ticket.

Someone learned the Golden Rule when he was a lad... and it seems to have stayed with him...

What would you do in the situation? Cash in the ticket? Find the owner? Be honest... I'd like to think I'd do the right thing but I can't say for certain... it might depend on my mood that day...

I'd find the owner. I'm a religious man and I believe that even no one else in the world knows i've done wrong God still does. Just the other night I was at a bar and the bartendered gave me an extra $10 bucks in change. I paused a second then got their attention and told them of their mistake. The bartender was thankful.

I think people should live by the golden rule, in every action you do consider how it affects others before how it affects you. If everyone in the world thought like this it would be a much better place.

I hate to be cynical but the article said the ticket was already signed. It would be pretty hard for me to cash a ticket someone else signed. If it wasn't signed to be honest I probably would cash it for myself.

What if it was God's will that you find and cash the ticket? ;)

I'm with crazybill, it being signed personifies the ticket in a way, kind of like finding a wallet with cash in it. In that situation I would definitely make an effort to find the owner.

If the ticket was unmarked... I'd keep it. Finding the true owner at that point becomes much more difficult.

Ditto. Signed, it'd be turned in, unsigned, it's just a 'found ticket'. I've found bank cards, wallets, etc., and always have tried to find the owner(s) or turned the stuff in with the hope that where I turned it in will be as honest.
I've lost a set of keys, know where I lost them, but they were never turned in and I think the reason being was the timepiece on it-a silver PT whose roof lifted to reveal the watch. It was a gift and I was very upset but the saving grace was, it didn't run.

I always do what I can to find someone, unless it's cash under $20, mostly because most people aren't interested in trying to help you find someone who dropped a five. I would turn in the signed lottery ticket, but I don't know if I'd turn down the reward--I could use the help!

I'm not sure the normal thinking applies to this scenerio, due to the ticket being signed.

Signed or unsigned, still a good thing to do. The longer I live the more I believe in Kharma. It's rare that I do something nice and it doesn't eventually come back around to me. Same with the bad Kharma so I try to avoid adding to it.

I'd return it. Not sure whether I'd refuse a reward though. Come on, they just won the lottery and you did something a lot of people wouldn't. But I wouldn't expect a reward for it.

I've done the same thing several times. I've found several wallets on the street, at public pools, or at the beach. I always return them (partly because I love the look of shock when they discover that the cash and credit cards are still inside). It feels good to do the right thing.

My conscience wouldn't allow me to keep something like that. You're taking something that you know belongs to someone else - that's stealing in my book. As for the reward, I wouldn't expect one, but it'd be a nice surprise. :)

So big-up to Sgt. Boniberger.

I used to follow the rule, then a few signs started to irk me: "Check your change before leaving the counter as mistakes cannot be rectified later", what's good for the goose is good for the gander, now if I am longchanged (as opposed to shortchanged) I consider it their mistake that they should have checked... too many incidents of "sorry" have occurred basically right after they closed the till and I hadn't moved.

I'd like to say I would've returned the ticket. I returned $100 earlier this month to a teller at a local bank because they gave me one Benjamin Franklin too many while cashing a check. Looking at my current financial woe I question Karma somedays but on the good days we never think back to why we may be experiencing good fortune.