Usually, finding money on the ground makes you feel like it’s your lucky day. A random $5 or $10 can get you a little treat. And you really hit the jackpot with anything at $20 or more. And it’s an increasingly rare instance, as fewer people carry cash nowadays.
For the most part, even if you wanted to return found money, unless you saw it fall from someone’s pocket or purse, it’s highly unlikely you’ll find the original owner. They could be far gone, and even if you turn it in or ask around, there’s no guarantee it’ll really make it back to its original owner. (Plenty of people would jump to lie if presented with the question, “Did you lose this $20?”)
One Pennsylvania woman thought it was her lucky day until the police showed up at her door.
She learned the hard way that her state has very different ideas about “finders keepers.”
What Would You Have Done?
In a viral video with more than 258,000 views, content creator Brianna (@iamspaghettinoodle) shared the unbelievable story of how finding a $20 bill at Walmart led to criminal charges from an unrelenting officer.
Brianna explains that back in September, she and her little sister went to Walmart to pick up supplies for a craft night in which they planned to paint their own custom doormats.
At self-checkout, Brianna says she noticed something in the change slot. There was $20 worth of change that somebody had left behind.
“So naturally, I pick it up and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, it’s my lucky day,'” she recalls. “Things are really expensive these days. Economy’s kinda crapped. I’m like, ‘Hell, yeah, dude. $20. This is awesome.'”
She says she almost gave it to her little sister for coffee money. But she decided they’d use it to buy the rest of their craft supplies at Michael’s, so she paid for her Walmart items with her card. And they left.
An Unexpected Call
Almost a week later, Brianna says her dad called out of the blue.
“‘The police are here looking for you,'” she recalls him telling her.
The officer reportedly told her dad not to worry. So she says she figured maybe she’d accidentally missed scanning something at Walmart, and they thought she’d stolen it.
But when the officer called her directly, she says there was a shift in the seriousness.
“‘Were you at Walmart on Saturday?'” she says the officer asked.
“Yes,” she says she responded.
“‘Do you remember the $20?'” he reportedly followed up.
“Yes,” she recounts answering.
She says he told her that in Pennsylvania, if money is left on the ground, on a counter, or on a seat cushion—whether it’s a penny, 5 cents, $5, $50, or more—you can be charged with a crime if you pick it up without making “a reasonable attempt” to find the owner.
He told her she was now potentially facing a misdemeanor charge for the crime.
“I don’t even have a speeding ticket—never even gotten a speeding ticket. Clean record. Totally clean,” Brianna says, shaken. “I sit at home with my cat, and I play the Sims. That’s pretty much all I do in life.”
She says she immediately started crying and profusely apologizing to the officer. She says she offered to give the person who’d left the money $50 to replace the $20. For context, when she and her sister were at the self-checkout, they’d looked around. But she says nobody else was there—not even a Walmart employee was at the self-checkout station.
“I don’t know what to do with it,” she thought at the time. “If it was a wallet or something, if I had ID, obviously, you return that. But I’m thinking, oh, $20, you know, my lucky day.”
But the officer didn’t care about her apologies or how truly absurd he was being.
“They pulled in the detective, scrubbed through Walmart footage. This $20 must have secretly been made of gold or something,” she said.
The timing couldn’t have been worse. The day before the officer called, Brianna says she found out her brother got drafted into the military and had to leave the country. So she wasn’t going to see him for a long time. She was already struggling mentally. And this felt like “the nail in the coffin.”
“My mental health has never been so low,” she admits.
Police Officer Won’t Let Up
She says the officer called the next day with an update. She says he told her he would charge her with a summary offense for disorderly conduct instead of a misdemeanor. She says he made it sound like he was doing her a favor.
“In retrospect … some of the things that have transpired since then really makes me feel like he was pretty dead set on charging me,” Brianna says.
“I was made to feel like such a criminal when I was nothing but apologetic on the phone. I was crying. I offered to give this person back $50. And I said, ‘I’ll get down on my knees. And I’ll kiss their feet. Whatever, I’ll write them a personal apology—whatever I have to do,'” she recalls.
Initially, Brianna says she planned to plead guilty just to get it over with. But her family convinced her not to put anything on her record, especially something so ridiculous. They got her a lawyer since she couldn’t afford it. And it came to $500.
When they went to the hearing, Brianna says she could tell the officer wasn’t going to budge.
“Didn’t matter what I said or what anyone else said. Didn’t matter how logical of an argument you made. Didn’t matter how apologetic you were. Like, this guy was gonna charge me. Point blank. Period,” she recounts.
That didn’t change until her lawyer walked in, she remembers. She says the charge was ultimately dropped.
She’s now looking into petitioning the law, which she calls “bogus.”
She says it’s technically a “common sense law.” That’s when common sense should be employed. But clearly, common sense isn’t universal.
Pennsylvania’s Lost Property Laws
Pennsylvania actually has a specific criminal statute that makes “finders keepers” illegal. According to Pennsylvania law, it’s a crime to take control of property you know has “been lost, mislaid, or delivered by mistake” if you don’t take “reasonable measures” to return it to the owner.
Whether it’s a misdemeanor or a felony charge depends on the value of what you found.
JD Law warns that some local police departments “exercise little charging discretion” and file all charges permitted by law. That’s even when someone immediately cooperates and returns the property. The outlet recommends continuing walking if you see money on the street in Pennsylvania.
Most other states have similar laws requiring finders to make an effort to return lost property. But enforcement varies.
FindLaw notes that California, for example, requires anyone who finds property worth $100 or more to turn it over to local police. If no owner claims it within 90 days (or seven days after a public announcement for items over $250), the finder can keep it.
Some states do follow a “treasure trove” rule. Buried or hidden gold, silver, or paper money belongs to the finder. But that doctrine is only recognized in 12 states. And Pennsylvania isn’t one of them. In states like Tennessee and Idaho, treasure troves actually belong to the landowner, not the finder. That’s specifically to avoid rewarding trespassers.
Commenters React
“If only the government spent this much time on stalking/sexual assault victims… truly embarrassing,” a top comment read.
“You looked around the see if anyone was near, thats a reasonable attempt to return it if you ask me,” a person said.
“As if the Walmart employees wouldn’t pocket it IMMEDIATELY if you turned it in,” another wrote.
“Hundreds if not thousands spent in man power and court costs over $20. The person who left it must have been related to one of the officers,” a commenter speculated.
@iamspaghettinoodle and yes, the charge was dropped! s/o to my lawyer and my family and my friends!! #crimetok #charged #fyp #smoothcriminal #crimestory
BroBible reached out to Brianna for comment via TikTok direct message.