What would you do?

[aguila]

And even they will state that they're not looking into a barrel of a gun each and every day.... so I think it was right, nice, and hopefully helpful what ancients did.

[gandy]

As to finding a wallet. In the US, it's my understanding that you can drop it in any blue Postal box and the Post Office will deliver it to the address. If there's a lot of cash in it, it may be worth contacting the owner as he/she may offer a reward. Of course, you could pocket the cash and then drop it in the Postal box. I guess it depends on whether your conscience would bother you or not. 

Once I bought a pair of identical used laptops on ebay. One had a bad motherboard but a good screen, the other was in working condition but had a bad screen. The guy was planning to make one working laptop from the two machines but never got around to it. I completed the project. I looked at the hard drive by connecting it to a USB to IDE cable. It had some files on it, documents etc. and almost a CD worth of photos. I burned this stuff to a CD before formatting the drive.

I contacted the seller to ask if he wanted me to send the CD to him, he said no.

[ancients]

I was curious what others would do...
And this was a very close friend at one point...
most often I do wipe zeros to the drive's and reuse them...
But I lost all my scans and family photos before,
and to me those were the eraplaceable items to me,
the other stuff was unimportant.

[joechimp]

I am curious as to what you would have done with this scenario?

What if the hard drive had been loaded with pictures of that couple in lets say, "delicate situations"

Would you still have contacted them?

[Wildman]

Finding a wallet or other like item is quite different than data on a hard drive. 

[YouCanToo]

Heck, I know that I'm dense; but how is this act of kindness any different than returning a person's lost wallet, credit cards, or other personal identification?

BTW I was a Boy Scout. That "do a good deed" stuff kinda stuck.  

I was a scout as well and I would have assumed that the "wallet and it's contents" were thrown out on purpose.

My "good deed" would have been to make sure it was never recovered, as the owner intended when they threw it out.

I guess it depends on how you look at it.  


I tried to throw a garbage can away once, the trash guy kept returning it. 

I found a wallet the other day in the parking lot of a place like Warmart. I took it to the police station and gave it to them to deal with. I didn't even look in it, just handed it over the way I found it.  As for the computer bit, I would of just salvaged the equipment that was good and would of wiped the hard drive and not worried what was or had been on it.  But he was right that it was good he found it instead of someone else.

[YouCanToo]

Hello XX
Returning your hard drive.  
You probably threw it out as faulty.
I got it as junk.
I have repaired it and found your name and address in a file.
I have not kept any of your data.
The charge for the repair and return is $x
which you can pay as a contribution to any charity.  
Yours
Anon.

Why should they pay you or anyone for that matter, for something that you have done WITHOUT being asked. It really doesn't matter how good your intentions may of been.

[YouCanToo]

I am curious as to what you would have done with this scenario?

What if the hard drive had been loaded with pictures of that couple in lets say, "delicate situations"

Would you still have contacted them?

I would of wondered why they would of risked leaving such photos on their hard drive anyway. What do you think would of happened if they would of taken said machine to a repair shop instead of tossing it out?  Do you really believe that the repair person doesn't snoop? If they were really all that concerned about protecting their information they would be encrypting their information. Why is it we don't use encryption as a general practice with our computers information?

[joechimp]

I am curious as to what you would have done with this scenario?

What if the hard drive had been loaded with pictures of that couple in lets say, "delicate situations"

Would you still have contacted them?

I would of wondered why they would of risked leaving such photos on their hard drive anyway. What do you think would of happened if they would of taken said machine to a repair shop instead of tossing it out?  Do you really believe that the repair person doesn't snoop? If they were really all that concerned about protecting their information they would be encrypting their information. Why is it we don't use encryption as a general practice with our computers information?

First thing Best Buy techs do is go right to the image and video files.

People do stupid things.

[ppiklapp]

I am curious as to what you would have done with this scenario?

What if the hard drive had been loaded with pictures of that couple in lets say, "delicate situations"

Would you still have contacted them?

I would of wondered why they would of risked leaving such photos on their hard drive anyway. What do you think would of happened if they would of taken said machine to a repair shop instead of tossing it out?  Do you really believe that the repair person doesn't snoop? If they were really all that concerned about protecting their information they would be encrypting their information. Why is it we don't use encryption as a general practice with our computers information?

First thing Best Buy techs do is go right to the image and video files.

People do stupid things.

As a computer geek, the first thing I would do is check for pics and info.  Both need to be backed up in the case of repair or destroyed in the case of reconditioning a used drive.  Either way, the drive gets checked out and analyzed for a full report to the person that owns it.  If they leave "natural" pics, it is their fault.   But I do know of a couple of people who would leave the pics for kicks.

[Rudge]

Heck, I know that I'm dense; but how is this act of kindness any different than returning a person's lost wallet, credit cards, or other personal identification?

BTW I was a Boy Scout. That "do a good deed" stuff kinda stuck.  

I was a scout as well and I would have assumed that the "wallet and it's contents" were thrown out on purpose.

My "good deed" would have been to make sure it was never recovered, as the owner intended when they threw it out.

I guess it depends on how you look at it.  


I tried to throw a garbage can away once, the trash guy kept returning it. 

I found a wallet the other day in the parking lot of a place like Warmart. I took it to the police station and gave it to them to deal with. I didn't even look in it, just handed it over the way I found it.  As for the computer bit, I would of just salvaged the equipment that was good and would of wiped the hard drive and not worried what was or had been on it.  But he was right that it was good he found it instead of someone else.

Just for the record, the "wallet" as mentioned by me,, was "symbolic" of the hard drive.

Of course I would have returned an actual Wallet. 

[ppiklapp]

Heck, I know that I'm dense; but how is this act of kindness any different than returning a person's lost wallet, credit cards, or other personal identification?

BTW I was a Boy Scout. That "do a good deed" stuff kinda stuck.  

I was a scout as well and I would have assumed that the "wallet and it's contents" were thrown out on purpose.

My "good deed" would have been to make sure it was never recovered, as the owner intended when they threw it out.

I guess it depends on how you look at it.  


I tried to throw a garbage can away once, the trash guy kept returning it. 

I found a wallet the other day in the parking lot of a place like Warmart. I took it to the police station and gave it to them to deal with. I didn't even look in it, just handed it over the way I found it.  As for the computer bit, I would of just salvaged the equipment that was good and would of wiped the hard drive and not worried what was or had been on it.  But he was right that it was good he found it instead of someone else.

Just for the record, the "wallet" as mentioned by me,, was "symbolic" of the hard drive.

Of course I would have returned an actual Wallet. 

You're a better man than I Gunga Rudge!

[Rudge]

Heck, I know that I'm dense; but how is this act of kindness any different than returning a person's lost wallet, credit cards, or other personal identification?

BTW I was a Boy Scout. That "do a good deed" stuff kinda stuck.  

I was a scout as well and I would have assumed that the "wallet and it's contents" were thrown out on purpose.

My "good deed" would have been to make sure it was never recovered, as the owner intended when they threw it out.

I guess it depends on how you look at it.  


I tried to throw a garbage can away once, the trash guy kept returning it. 

I found a wallet the other day in the parking lot of a place like Warmart. I took it to the police station and gave it to them to deal with. I didn't even look in it, just handed it over the way I found it.  As for the computer bit, I would of just salvaged the equipment that was good and would of wiped the hard drive and not worried what was or had been on it.  But he was right that it was good he found it instead of someone else.

Just for the record, the "wallet" as mentioned by me,, was "symbolic" of the hard drive.

Of course I would have returned an actual Wallet. 

You're a better man than I Gunga Rudge!

I would hope that if I lost my wallet, it would be returned to me.. so it is exactly what I would do if I ever found one. 

[Crow]

I would have done just the same.

I know that there are bad people everywhere but if those folks were my schoolmates at some point I should probably know.

Years ago a friend picked up a few old Psychology books that someone putted in the street and brought them to me, there was a few really good and I found personal letters from a couple I knew, I returned the letters to the wife and she was grateful for that; she didn't want the books but didn't remember that the letters were there.