THE BAIS HAVAAD HALACHA JOURNAL: Volume 5775 Issue XV Parshas Bo 2:30 AM Windfall on the L.I.E. When Finders are Keepers by Rabbi Yehoshua Wolfe

I’m driving on the freeway and the armored truck in front of me dropped its cash. Can I pocket the money? A question few stop to ask. Especially while the green-backs are still plastered to their windshield. It was reported that last Tuesday at around 2:30 am, a bag of cash fell out of a moving armored truck, spilling onto the Long Island Expressway. The rear door flew open, and $100 and $20 bills flew out. The drivers behind the truck raced out and collected most of the $170,000; the guard recovered $40. This article attempts to examine several aspects of this puzzling episode. In such a situation, are the drivers, in fact, permitted to keep the money? What’s more, how about the gun-toting guard? Shouldn’t he have intervened? Hashavas aveidah is one of the first mitzvos we are taught as children. Finders are not keepers - and lost property must be returned to its rightful owner. The following paragraphs, however, focus on when you may keep lost property. The times that finders are keepers.