Dallas cops keep $2,000 found by honest teen

Source

"We appreciate your honesty," said Dallas police spokesman Senior Cpl. Kevin Janse. "We're going to put the money to good use. It's not going to be wasted, but put to good use for the City of Dallas."

That's not the answer Ashley Donaldson had been hoping for. "I was thinking about a car," she confessed.

This is priceless! So this is how Dallas rewards honest people?

Granted, I fully believe that turning in the money is the right thing to do. I also think that the money should be given to the individual who found the money should the original owner not be identified. I sure as hell don't think the government should take it!!

Good job Dallas!!!

10% finders fee ?

Whole amount after x years if the owner cannot identify him/herself etc.

What a BS.

Ridiculous. It should go back to the finder after a month.

But the story does have a happier ending.

But an anonymous donor from Fort Worth stepped in and wrote a check for $4,000 to reward Ashley's honesty — and to help her family.

"I was completely shocked," she said. "I couldn't breathe ... I was just so happy and just so amazed at how they could do that for me."

www.khou.com...

never talk
to the police

unless they have a warrant
and you have a lawyer

police are taught
that the citizen is the enemy

Back when I was working with drug and alcohol arrested clients in Austin, it was not uncommon to have these folks, usually young, unconnected hispanics and blacks, complain that when they were busted a good percentage of the cash if not the weed never made it to the evidence room.

Allow that behavior to get ingrained into the system for a few years and one can understand how they can rationalize that any money coming into their possession is their "found" money.

What (another) travesty of "public service" employees.

She and her friends and anyone else reading that story were all taught a very valuable lesson.

Especially considering some private citizen rewarded her for her action and subsequent painful realization with $4,000.

The gov thinks you are a sponge it can leach off of and the police are all too happy to enforce that.

An anonymous do-gooder from neighboring Fort Worth has come forward and donated $4,000 to the girl and her family as a reward for her honesty.www.theatlanticwire.com...

This actually turned into a PR nightmare for Dallas PD once people started calling and offering their opinions. The Dallas Police Association started a fund raising campaign for Ashley before the PD did an about face and decided to give the money to her if no one claimed it in the next 30 days.

Just goes to show you, honesty doesn't pay when you deal with a city that is used to taking instead of giving.

Government employees stealing peoples money, how can anyone be shocked by this? Thats what cops are payed for, if you don't give the government your money they will tell the cops to get it for them.

The entire story should be posted :

On Tuesday, police said under a new city policy, the unclaimed money will go into Dallas' general fund — not back to the person who found it, as in years past.

So, they're following policy, not "taking" the money from her.

This young lady was honest and did the "right thing"; if anyone should keep this money it should be her.

I'm glad someone did recognize her decency and rewarded her anyhow.

When I was younger I found a clarinet, the police said come back in one month and if no has claimed it you can have it. Being 13 I followed this to the letter and turned up exactly one month later. The desk sergeant said it had not been claimed, I was quite excited thinking I could give it my little sister and waited whilst he went to the lost property department, however he returned to tell me that I had to claim it in 30 days and today was day 31 and that it would be sold and the proceeds given to some police charity!

Good to see the bastards are the same the world over.

Kudos to this girl though and glad somebodies wallet was able to reward her good deed.

reply to post by bozzchem


Uhm... yeah... Dallas needs to reverse that idiotic policy. This is one of the stupidest things I have seen yet when it comes ot this topic.

Nothing like rewarding an honest young person with a smack in the face. She should not be punished because the city council of Dallas cant budget money.

Nobody ever checks to see if the money actually goes into the city account. There is no police watchdog. Many times they just put the money in their own pocket. I have seen it done. Yay for the honest and those who reward them!

Originally posted by elevatedone

So, they're following policy, not "taking" the money from her.

Yup.

And whipping negroes was just policy until the emancipation proclamation.

Gassing Jews was just policy until the end of the war.

No women voting was just policy until suffrage.

Giving up your seat for any white guy was just policy until '56.

It's just policy. You cant blame those enforcing the policy. It's not like they chose their jobs or anything. It's not like we have any expectations of thought or discretion among adults.

Just policy.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Please.. build a bridge and get over whatever your problem is. 2k dollars comes no where close to genocide of the nazis or civil rights, and comparing them only demeans them.

reply to post by Xcathdra


Im not comparing the actions. Im comparing the justification.

"Policy" is just a term for mindless drone doing as told. For better or worse.

I think you've claimed to be a cop, right? Ever question your "policies?" Ever decide not to follow through with a "policy?"

It's simultaneously an excuse and a cop-out. That cop running Rosa's prints was just following policy. It's not his fault. It's the fault of some nameless and faceless bureaucrats somewhere out in the world who set the policy.

Just goes to show that honesty does not pay.

I find the money, I am keeping it. Don't want me to keep it, don't lose it.

Sorry that is the way liejunkie works.

Having something called a "general" fund for a police department sounds peculiar to me. What else goes into this generalized treasure chest of "unowned" goods?

reply to post by NearPerfect


Municipalities have been increasingly dumping all extorted and otherwise ill-gotten property into obscure "general" funds.

Lotteries usually start to find schools and education. Within 2 years they always get diverted to the "general" fund.

Cigarette taxes are always for health and treatment programs. They too eventually get diverted into the "general" fund.

Bottle deposits are supposed to encourage recycling and the uncollected deposit money used for environmental purposes. Always gets sent into the "general" fund.

The "general" fund is the greatest politician scam anywhere. Sell you a tax or fine or fee attached to a bag of positive dreams and wishes and then they turn around and use the money to hand out contracts to their buddies or to pay for petty re-election feed for the idiot mass like a new school that wont be funded past re-election and have to close down or blight removal that will never be completed once the promising politician is re-elected to the money goes to waste and the neighborhood dies.

If people are always gullible enough to fall for this, and just a quick look around at the various bankrupt cities and states shows they are, then they deserve every bit of it.

The child got a lesson on how the real world works, a world where honesty gets you know where and sometimes even sets you back.
I wouldve just kept it.. finders keepers