Would You Return a Boxful of Gems?

[JewelFreak]

A climber on Mont Blanc found a box full of emeralds, rubies, & sapphires, probably debris from one of 2 Air India plane crashes nearby in 1950 & 1966. Estimate of total value is $330,000. He descended the mountain and took the jewels directly to the police, who contacted the airline to see if they could locate heirs or owner. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/mont-blanc-climber-indian-jewels

What would you do? I'd like to think I'd turn it in directly, but to be brutally honest, I am pretty sure I'd at least take it home first & play with the gems overnight before handing them over. If it were one ring found on the street, I would not hesitate to take it to police, but....a box full of gems, I am not certain I could resist keeping just one...or maybe two. (Then, of course, guilt would take all the fun out of wearing them but I'd be too embarrassed to cough 'em up later, so they would sit in a drawer, a dismal reminder that everybody has a price.) I don't know really whether I'd give in to gem lust or not. I'm sure I'd think about it.

So would you return all of them -- honestly?

--- Laurie

 

[Efe]

I would return them after they were cleaned, categorized and photographed. That could take a while

 

[kenny]

I'd return them by putting them in my will.

 

[missy]

I would return them after they were cleaned, categorized and photographed. That could take a while

Haha, I like the way you think Effe.

Definitely I would return them. They aren't mine and I wouldn't feel right about keeping them. At all. However, if the owner/heir wanted to reward me with one of those beauties for returning them well, I wouldn't say no haha. Though I certainly wouldn't expect anything for doing the right thing.

I could see how one might struggle with what to do but I am confident that when push comes to shove most people would do the same. And I am 100% certain my PS twin would for sure even if she would be tempted a bit. Hey who wouldn't with a box full of jewels? I mean we're only flesh and blood yanno?

 

[yennyfire]

I'd return them, if only because keeping any of them would cause me such guilt, I don't think I could stand it. Now, I would be lying if I said I'd wouldn't be praying that the original owners would gift me with the stone of my choice for returning their precious gems to them!

 

[TooPatient]

I would return them all. Of course to return them all safely and make sure no one else had any thoughts, I'd have to clean them and make sure to get a detailed description of each. My favorite jeweler would have to help me make a thorough list.

But if you find a cat or a dog you get to hang on to them and take care of them until the owner is found so maybe I'd have no choice but to volunteer to be a foster wearer

I wonder what happens if the original owner can't be found?

 

[JewelFreak]

I wonder what happens if the original owner can't be found?

The guy who found them gets them back, according to the article. That's what I'd be praying for. It also said something about writing on the box, "Product of India." No mention if there was anything else that could be a clue.

I'd have no choice but to volunteer to be a foster wearer

I LOVE that!

I would not in the end be able to keep any of them, but it would be one of the hardest decisions I ever made -- assuming they were a quality worth the agony, at least. The guilt would kill me otherwise.

--- Laurie

 

[pregcurious]

I have no idea. I'd like to think I would get rid of them immediately because the longer I had them, the harder it would be to let go, and the greater the guilt and misery would be.

 

[JewelFreak]

Preg, I wondered if that's why the guy who found them went straight to police with them. I'd have to do that too, not take them home & start cuddling them.

--- Laurie

 

[iLander]

I'd return them by putting them in my will.

Genius! I will do this too!

 

[justginger]

I would take them home, take photos of them, and return them the next morning. I would never be able to enjoy a gem I had stolen. But I would definitely be hoping for a token gift of appreciation in the form of being able to choose one to keep.

 

[erinl]

I would definitely want the rightful owners to get the gems. However,I would not hand them over as a return. How would you know that they actually were returned instead of someone else claiming them wrongfully? It needs to be done in a way in which the owner can describe the contents, such as one must do when they lose something and claim it at lost and found.

I think of the time that I was waiting tables about 20 years ago. Someone left me a 25 dollar tip. It was a mother and a daughter, and perhaps they were being nice to me, but I thought 6 dollars was more in line with what I should have been tipped, thought they had accidentally given me a 20 instead of a one. So being as honest as I was back then, I went to my manager and told him the story and said could I leave it in an envelope up front up front so if they happened to come back it would be there for them. When I next worked I asked him if they had come back and picked up the twenty-- and he kind of stumbled around and said "oh yeah" without looking me in the eye. Pretty obvious he took it. I was pretty mad, because if anyone were to get the money it should have been me. Afraid the same kind of situation would happen with the gems, and all other things being equal, "finders keepers," not some crafty person who finds an opportunity to take advantage of your honesty.

 

[AprilBaby]

Finders keepers! They have been missing since 1950 and were probably insured and paid for. You think the heir is going to return the insurance money? I could have some real fun!

 

[VRBeauty]

Yes, absolutely. At the end of the day, I'd return them.



In the beginning and middle of the day I'd be playing with them and fantasizing!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I'd turn them in...something creepy about keeping gems that belonged to someone who probably died in a plane crash.

 

[packrat]

If I found them on the street and they'd like fallen off the Brinks truck or whatever, yes. In this case? Nope, doubtful.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

If I found them on the street and they'd like fallen off the Brinks truck or whatever, yes. In this case? Nope, doubtful.

Yeah, you know, if it was a random situation, no death involved, and the items were insured, it'd be different. But, I don't think I'd want gems from a death-related thing. They're probably haunted gemstones! Hmmm...speaking of ghosts, time to decorate for Halloween

 

[kenny]

Finders keepers! They have been missing since 1950 and were probably insured and paid for. You think the heir is going to return the insurance money? I could have some real fun!

If they were insured and the owners were paid a claim, I believe the gems are legally owned by the insurance company the instant the gem owners (rightful heirs) cashed that huge check.

 

[lyra]

I'd return them immediately, without question. I wouldn't keep them even if by law they were awarded to me, as the article stated could happen. I don't really believe in mojo, but I'd never be comfortable with the thought of how I'd come to own them, or even just having the money from selling them. Maybe at most, I'd offer them to a museum for display? I couldn't stand the thought of gaining from someone else's tragic death.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

100% return untouched. I simply wouldn't want them.

Just imagine trying to insure and sell them.... "Hey nice gems, how'd you get them?". "Oh I found them while hiking and they probably once belonged to someone in an Air India crash".

cheers--Sharon

 

[Maria D]

How ironic - I had not heard about this. I opened this thread as my husband was showing a friend pictures of his hike up Mt Katahdin this summer, a hike I decided not to take part in. I enjoy the outdoors and I'll go for a day hike, but not an overnight involving sleeping in lean-tos and climbing up and down rocks. So...as I read the story, I thought - now THAT kind of find could make it worth it! If I found this treasure trove on what for me would be an excruciating journey, I would suddenly believe in god and think s/he put it there just for me, knowing that the view from the summit is not my idea of a worthwhile pay-off!

No way I'd turn it in to the police for "rightful owners!" I wouldn't trust that they would be found. The mountain climber is obviously a person of great integrity, but I don't believe that will be true for everyone else, police included.

I wouldn't try to sell them, but leave them to a museum in my will.

I'm kind of surprised by the answers here - I'm probably the person *least* interested in gems on PS!

 

[JewelFreak]

Interesting responses, all over the board. I keep thinking about this because I honestly don't know what I'd do. Like what would you do if your house caught fire, one can't predict till it happens.

Kenny's right -- they would belong to the insurance company if they were insured, and if sold now would be worth multiples of the payout (assuming they're good quality). Records might be nonexistant if they were on the 1950 flight, so nobody may know how many were originally in the box.

If it were anything but gems -- even cash or an engagement ring -- I'd take it to the cops without any doubt. But gem lust raises its beautiful head & I honestly don't know if I'd keep one or two -- certainly not the whole box. I can hear my father saying it's still theft, whether it's one stone or 25. I know, Dad, but geeze...... Kind of a shock to realize I just don't know....I think I'm honest, always return change, don't cheat on my taxes -- but in a case where there are no real owners....on the other hand, I'd feel awfully guilty, but guilty enough?

Their involvement in a plane crash wouldn't bother me. If you buy vintage jewelry, chances are a previous owner died. I only hope she is happy somebody still loves the item. May be the same with, ahem, just one emerald or sapphire from a box of them?????

--- Laurie

 

[arkieb1]

I got the impression if they can't track down the owners that the climber might either get them or part of them back again and even if they do he might still get some sort of reward anyway....

 

[Circe]

Finders, keepers.

Well, no, not really ... I'd hand them in in a flash. But fighting the initial desire would make me feel sufficiently virtuous as to justify getting myself something very nice, indeed ....

P.S. - no good deed goes unpunished: I have the sneaking suspicion that the climber may have a headache of bureaucracy in store. Or at least either suspicion or condescension. I really AM the person who returns lost things: two times out of three, the person to whom the object is being returned is a wretch. My favorite is still the bank manager who forgot her brand new iPad in a cab, stood me up the first time I tried to return it, and then tried to give me a reward for my troubles when she finally could manage to meet me to pick it up: a shiny fiver to call my own. Lady, basic good manners would have more than sufficed ....

 

[luv2sparkle]

I really don't know....I think I would want to keep them, but I don't think I could. If they were polished and cut, it would be harder than if they were rough gems.

I would definitely spend a little time enjoying them and taking some pictures, ok, lots of pictures, to remember them by.

 

[boerumbiddy]

True story: Found department-store-quality opal bracelet on subway stairs in midtown Manhattan. Took it home. Wore it maybe once. I should have turned it in to the subway clerk at the time, but didn't. Later, a friend's friend was having a turn-in-your-gold fundraiser for a school for children with autism. Put the bracelet in that basket and certainly did not take an income-tax deduction. Felt a little better about myself. A little.

 

[Tuckins1]

Yep.

 

[momhappy]

I guess it sounds sort of odd to say that the gems could be returned? Returned where and to whom? Sure, you could turn them in to authorities, but there's no telling what would happen to them. If they were linked to some plane crash that happened many, many years ago, then what are the chances that they would even be connected with the crash? I would like to think that it would be nice to get them to their rightful owner, but I would think that finding that owner would be pretty darn tough. I would have to do some research before I just handed them over to someone.

 

[marcy]

I'd be excited to find them and look at them but I'd immediately turn them in to the police.

 

[arkieb1]

A number of years ago when my ex boyfriend and I were poor struggling Uni students we went grocery shopping and he found a ladies wallet in one of the large refrigerators amongst the food. He went down the front of the store to hand it in, and all the staff were going you guys are crazy. Up the front of the supermarket, there was a 19 year old girl who was hysterical and her mother. When she saw the wallet she basically snatched it out of my ex's hands and the mother started verbally abusing him for about 10 mins as the girl went through it to count it was all there.

Once she had established it was all there the owner of the manager/owner of the supermarket who had also come down the front and had witnessed the whole thing and was horrified said to them I think you had better than these people, so reluctantly they did.

Turns out the wallet had $8000 cash in there because the girl was due to go overseas the next day, she only calmed down after she had counted out the money and I think the mother abused us several times over cursing and so on while she did it. They didn't even know where she had left the wallet other than they thought they had left it in the supermarket or that someone had robbed them in the supermarket..... Bottom line we did NOT rob her, and my ex handed it in as soon as he found it (we didn't even count it but we could see it had a lot of money in it) and he didn't take or touch one cent of it......

I am not sure that those people deserved to get it back they were so careless and rude.... O.K they might have been hysterical about losing it but when they got it back again they were still really rude. The supermarket manager actually said some nasty words back to them at the end and the mother said that she thought the girl had been robbed and they had been saving for ages for money for her trip overseas. After they left he said to us, you should have kept the money those people were so rude he thought they didn't deserve anything. I said to my ex afterwards that he should have kept it and donated the whole lot to charity or something..... He being the person that he was said they were probably just upset at the thought of losing that much and that is what made them act like horrible people. Me, I am not so sure!!!