Finders Keepers - have you ever found anything valuable?

I found a hundred dollar bill. We held onto it for a day and no one came to claim it, so we split it (I was working at a coffee shop at the time).

A Chet Atkins CE guitar


actually that wouldnt exactly count..

as i didnt FIND it outside of the house or anything..

Walking down the hall at work, I found a huge wad of cash - I never counted it, but it must have been at least $100 - lots of twenties and tens. I gave it to our administrative assistant and asked her what I should do with it. She said she would give it to security and see if some one claimed it - as an email would bring lots of responses.

When no one claimed it - she asked me if I wanted it back - I said no - donate it to charity - it just didn't seem right to me to benefit from a co-workers loss.

40 bucks on the ground which was promptly blown on "my" kids. My little buddies.
They had a good time, and that money came at a good time. Got to spoil them a bit.

A nice piece of jewelry.

All karma. Seeing how I lost at least 3 pieces of expensive jewelry over the years. A ring in a pool, a nurse's style watch at a zoo, an emerald bracelet somewhere between a restaurant and a bar and somewhere.

Recently found a closed carton of smokes! haha. I don't smoke now. Besides, it didn't sit right with me so I threw it away. Weird.

Probably have found things much more valuable, sentimentally, and didn't notice.

I found an iPod. It was cool cuz I lost mine, but then I lost that one too

Found cash in the gutter when we were still living in NY -- split it with a friend, she and I both barely had 2 nickels to rub together so it came at a good time. Also, once when I was traveling, found a $20 in an ATM, it was in the withdrawal tray and someone had just not taken it. Split it with the accountant who was with me -- we had a nice dinner that night.

We found jezebel on our doorstep.

she was a year old and obviously belong to someone, as she was fixed...also, she had long hair and it was much too well kept to have been subjected to much weather.

She didn't want to go away. We looked for lost pet signs, and asked around, no takers.

that was about 13-14 years ago.

I found the bigass keel andsome members and bolts from the US Minnesota, which was attacked by the Virginia at Hampton Roads in the Civil War. After the ship was un grounded and fixed(it was a sitting duck because it was caught on a sandbar at the time), it was used (I believe) as a Navy target practice ship off Kendal Point near Eastport Maine, then its remains were towed near shore and the brass was stripped and it was set afire. I found it because my anchor windlass chain got all tangled up in about 35 ft of water. I waited till the tide was low and it was only about 12 feet, so I could dive down and free the chain and cable AND ANCHOR. tHERE i SAW THIS BIG HONKIN KEEL AND SOME SPARS AND sOME OTHER CRAP LYING ABOUT. i CHECKED IN WITH THE LOCAL mARINE hISTORICAL sOCIETY AND THEY HAD RECORDS OF ALL tHE WRECKS AND REEF BOATS AND SCUTTLED SHIPS IN THaT AREA OF fUNDY.

qUITE COOL. i STILL have a number of the bolts , spikes and iron spreaders that were used in the keelson metal plates. (I kept the smallest one I could lift topside)

very cool, farmerman!

Found as a result of my work when I managed a dry cleaning shop;

$1000.00 in an envelope
More money than I care to think about.
Membership document for local football club from 1920's
Condoms (Many times)
Saphire ring (The client had tried to claim insurance but was denied as she didnt know where she lost it)

Badges, too numerous to mention

Very saucy letter in a gentlemans trouser pocket from a lady who should not have been writing saucy letters to said gentleman.

Drugs (several different types)

dadpad, so what happened to the grand?

I am a scavenger by nature...so it would probably be easier to list the things I have not found.

My favorite find was a nice sized piece of petrified wood, about the size of a Thanksgiving turkey...dug it up while I was working on our pool. I kept it on the pool deck for...almost exactly 20 years....until one day it disappeared...not sure where it is, but my grandmother had been in need of filler for one of her projects, and I'm guessing it's under a couple of inches of concrete at the moment. She of course has no recollection of the "rock" whatsoever, even though she walked by it every day since 1986.

My backyard, and basically my entire town, is located in one of the old ancient Mississippi river beds...so there is no telling how far it had traveled. It's rare now, but people still find shark teeth in this area, so far I have not found one...or at least that I was aware of at the time anyway, but that would be a definite treasure.

(1987) We were headed back to Oklahoma from a vist to the 'rents house in Connecticut and I hadn't been all that careful with the cash in pocket. I figured that if we were careful we would have just enough to pay for the gas to get home.

I, of course, did not share this information with either my wife nor my child who proceeded at the first breakfast stop outside of Indianapolis, Indiana to cause the waitresses at the Roy Rogers eatery to form a conga line as they delivered plate after plate of variously fried entrees to our staggering table.

In the parking lot I counted what was left and, like one of WWII co-pilots in the movies, announced to myself that there was no way that we would be able to fly this crate all the way back to base. Did I then tell the crew? Oh, no. I am a man.

The happy well-fed ones immediately fell asleep and I proceeded to drive.

Hmmm. Maximum fuel economy needed. Would it be better to drive 62 mph or 65 mph? Coast down hills? Ease up them.... Damn, Missouri has a lot of hills that only go up...... . What to do? I'm only halfway across Illinois with three more tanks of gas needed and only enough cash for one and a half.

Just past St. Louis with my crew still drowsing, I pulled into an overlook. There wasn't much to overlook, just beautiful green trees and the rolling hills of mid-America, there wasn't any facilities either, but seeing as we were the only car in the tiny parking lot, I looked around to see where others might have gone before us, so to speak.

I spotted a little break in the trees and there was a faint path to a shaded area. Ah, a perfect place for a pee! I took my stance and prepared to fire when my eyes said "HALT! Don't pee on that!!"

That, was a little stack of money-- six twenty dollar bills and a ten.
I counted them twice, then I peed, then I headed back to the car.

"Wait!" A voice in my head said.
(I was very glad it was in my head.)
"What if there is more?"

So, I went back and had a good look around, but alas, I had found the little mother lode or father lode or the someone who was off loading something lode.

I started the car fully expecting another car to come zooming into the overlook with it's owner rushing to the spot I had just left, but no one came.

Lunch in Joplin!! Sure, have what you want!!

I bought everyone ice cream as we gassed up at the Midway stop on the Okahoma Turnpike and we were home in time to have a pizza delivered for dinner.

Joe(Uh... No. I never told them.)Nation

The envelope was found whilst unloading a machine with something in the order od 150 garments in it. so there was no way to tell which clients garment it may have come from, so I held it waiting for somone to make a claim. No-one ever claimed it. I roused on the counter staff for not checking pockets properly. (but my heart wasnt in it.)

Half went to the volunteer fire brigade for the new truck fund, the rest i kept and put toward a second hand car.

One Saturday night, back in the early '80s, a girlfriend and I decided we wanted to learn how to two-step.

The Urban Cowboy craze had just hit, and even though we were confirmed city girls who would never be caught dead in cowboy boots, we thought it sounded like fun. So what if we didn't know how to dance western-style? We were pretty hot, and we knew we'd find some guys to teach us.

So we put on our tightest jeans and went to a new bar called "Willie's." It was the first of its kind in town. Tulsa was practically covered with them a couple of years later, but at the time, this was a Real Novelty.

Sure enough, we were two-steppin' with ease within an hour. It was not as difficult as we had expected. The guys were only too happy to show us how.

And then this tall, verrrrry skinny cowboy with curly hair and a mustache asked me to dance. Within 30 seconds on the dance floor, it became obvious that this was no current fad for him. He knew what he was doing. And he was good. "Where are you from?" I asked him when I caught my breath. He gave me this big grin and said, "Texas. And...do you mind if I lead?" He laughed and winked at me when he said it.

A few songs later, I begged to sit down. He said he had come with a friend, and they had to go someplace to meet some other people, but he'd be back in a couple of hours. Would I wait for him?

Oh, sure. I'd heard this one before. He was cute, but the place was full of cute guys. "You leave, you take your chances!" I said.

"No, really! I'll be back!"

"Okay then, we'll see," I said.

Reaching into his pocket, he took out a business card and offered it to me. "If you have to leave, here's my numbers. Call me, okay? And, sorry about giving you a card...I don't want you to think I'm just trying to impress you or anything..."

"Oh, don't worry," I laughed. "I design these things for a living. I'm not impressed!"

Anyway, he left. I didn't expect him to come back. It took me about 10 minutes to find another dancing partner. The good times continued...

Then about an hour and a half later, I looked out across the dance floor, and I saw Skinny Cowboy out there! Hey! He came back after all! But...what's this? He was dancing with a 6' tall, gorgeous model-type with long, blonde hair and skintight jeans. And...they were both laughing!!! Grrrr. What the...

I ditched the guy I was dancing with, and he ditched Blondie. We met each other back on the dance floor. And we spent the next two hours dancing and talking. My girlfriend had long since left for home, so Skinny Cowboy said he'd give me a ride.

I thought he was cute, but a little rough around the edges. I thought he'd be a good time for a few weeks, nothing more.

I was wrong. Dead wrong. The more I found out about him, the more there was to like. Turns out, this was no ordinary cowboy after all. He was much more valuable than that.

That was 26 years ago on March 20. We've been together ever since.

I've always wondered how I got lucky enough to find him. In a cowboy bar, of all places. Who woulda thought?!

Finders Keepers!

After reading that one, I suddenly feel like Charlie Brown...the Halloween special....

"I got a rock."

The big surprise, 2packs, for anyone who has spent any time in Tulsa (similar to time spent in prison, but with beer and bar-b-q available) is that anyone actually married someone that they met at Willie's.

Joe(Most people felt lucky just to find the exits of that barn)Nation

ps: and a big 'awwwww' to Eva for the best story so far.

Joe, that story was so much more enjoyable than a stark "I found a stack of money while peeing in the woods."

Eva, that was nice.

YEh, whats worde is Joe is making believe hes our English Comp teacher on another thread, and jhere he is commenting on the best, most uplifting story on this one.

Im gonna have the Homeland Security guys look into
Joe's hard drive.