Posted on 09/26/2008 4:14:00 PM PDT by BGHater
A man was charged with theft after a bank accused him of not returning more than $280,000 mistakenly deposited into his account.
Herbert Starbird, 57, was charged Tuesday with theft and receiving stolen property, police said. He allegedly spent more than half of $280,276 he found in his account last fall.
First Commonwealth Bank also has filed a civil suit against Starbird. The bank seized what was left when it discovered the error and wants Starbird to return more than $150,000 still missing.
Starbird's attorney, Thomas Dickey, said his client spent the money after the bank told him the Oct. 23, 2007, deposit was not a mistake. He will plead not guilty, Dickey said.
But in court papers, the bank said Starbird never contacted it and was never told the money belonged to him.
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...
Those Nigerians came through!
LOL!!!
LOL, good call.
i think that if all the sudden a couple hundred grand were deposited in my account, i would think something was wrong.
Who does this guy think he is, Chris Dodd?
I believe there was a precedent set for this under Finders vs. Keepers.
Only works if you move the money and collect the interest.
If someone threew a bundle of money on my doorstep, would it be “theft” to spend it?
By the way, why didn’t this guy just borrow the $280,000 and not pay it back? That’s the legal way to steal money.
Yes, you must turn it in to police. It is considered "lost" property and rightfully belongs to the owner.
If the owner does not claim the property in 90 days, it is yours (in most states) and you may claim it from the police.
“Yes, you must turn it in to police. It is considered ‘lost’ property and rightfully belongs to the owner.”
Whatever the law may be, is it morally “theft”? I say people who throw bundles of money on other people’s doorsteps undertake an assumption of risk.
By the way, how does the owner prove the money’s his?
In my book it is.
“In my book it is.”
Not in my book. In my book, you hold onto your money, and you lose it at your own risk.
They should complain after the way the banks and wall street has screwed us?
We have the same book.
I only know this because I worked at a bank and was walking with a woman when we found an envelope in the lobby of the corporate offices with 5K in it. When we turned it into the police, we were told the criteria for its return to the rightful owner.
A bank employee I told the story to was fired for trying to claim the money....when I told the story to people, I told them "$4500"...lol
At the end of the 90 days, the money was given to us. She had actually picked up the envelope so she gave me a few hundred bucks and paid off her student loans.
Can’t wait for the charges against Lehman Bros, Merrill Lynch, WaMu, et al.
That precedent was ratified when the courts upheld the finding in Losers v. Weepers.
I guess those “Bank Error in Your Favor - Collect $$$$” cards in Monoply don’t cut any ice in the real world.
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