Mercenary Minded in Tewksebury

stevebirch2002

stevebirch2002

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k up your larder - Malvern & Portsmouth
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Friend of mine lost his Mirror Dinghy in the floods at Tewkesbury. Gets a phone call from a pub in the town saying it may be the one they have found. We trundles off down to check and collect. When we arrive the first words spoken were "We expect a finders fee!" If nothing had been said then £20 would of gone in their grubby little hands no problem but with the brazen money-grasping attitude they got bugger all! And looks like the Mirror needs an awful lot of work! Holes and gashes everywhere.... but repairable
 
Apparently someone was followed going round all the free water collection points in Cheltenham, loading up a van with the intention of selling the water in his shop. Glad to say that all the free water, and all his existing stock, was confiscated back to be distributed free.

I live in Cheltenham, and this crisis has brought out the best and worst in people. I am looking forward to a bath tomorrow, with a bit of luck!
 
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Apparently someone was followed going round all the free water collection points in Cheltenham, loading up a van with the intention of selling the water in his shop. Glad to say that all the free water, and all his existing stock, was confiscated back to be distributed free.


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Incredible, isnt it, how low some people will sink?
 
Twer I the owner of the lost boat, I would nip round smartish with a finders fee, box of chocolates, and thank you card...

The chances of finding somebody that would not sit on it for 6 months, sand off any marks and sell it at a car boot or on ebay in this day and age....

Whilst you may not have appriciated the manners, the fact is the finder could have let it rot or flogged it, the owner would have been down by one boat.
 
The state of the boat means it is just about worthless unless you want to spend lots of time and effort to repair.

I would of been happy giving them a pint or £20 but surely that must come from the owner. If they had kept the boat knowingly then that is theft......

Just upsets me that people can be so blatant. Maybe just me but Im sure I wouldnt do it and I am one of Maggie's disciples!
 
Surely the finders fee is up to his insurance company?. What if the boat had dented one of his cars etc. He would be liable for the damage caused by his failure to secure his property against a well advertised and known threat.

Only 20 squids? Methinks Lloyds open form would be appropriate. £20 probably does not even cover the cost of the landlords time that he spent tracking down the owner. £50 and buying the landlord some of his own ale would be the gentlemanly thing to do methinks.
 
Could the landlord not claim salvage rights /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Your friend has had a stroke of luck, clearly the boat had some value even if sentimental, and who is to say you will not get another flood.....

The finders fee comment may have been a joke that went down badly, at a time when many in that area will be stressed.

The easiest option for the landlord was to do nothing, the most profitable one was to flog it, but he did neither, he did the decent thing.

Try and persuade your friend to give the landlord the benefit of the doubt, stump up a small reward, it is the decent thing to do in this situation.
 
Landlady didnt find who owned it, another yachtclub member saw it under the lean-to at the pub and told the landlady as well as giving them the phne number, in its present state I doubt if its worth £50.

From the tone it certainly wasnt meant as a joke re. the finders fee. She made it pretty obvious they wanted a finders fee.

Perhaps it just me and my Utopian view of how I wish people would be.....
 
Depends if the car was underway at the time - the Mirror was clearly NUC ... therefore could've been stand on vessel ...
 
Agree with you Steve,any decent person would be happy to return it free of charge.Disasters bring out the best in some people and the worse in others.

Apparently in Gloucester some teenagers on school holiday have been volunteering to help with water distribution checking the elderly etc.Others (probably a tiny minority)have been pissing in the water bowsers /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Takes all sorts.
 
Would it not have been easier for the club member to ring your friend direct, rather than rely on a third party to do so ? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Are there any more missing facts we need to know ?

If it is worth so little, why not let the landlady turn it into a novelty flowerbed. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Looks like the landlady made no attempt to hide it, and once made aware of the likely owner, made an effort to contact them.

Had your friend left their car in the car park, the landlady would have been entitled to ask for a parking fee, so why not a finders fee.

The landlady could have done nothing, or given it to a punter who had an interest in DIY, or moved it elsewhere for later sale, or turned it into a novelty flowerbed.

But no, she did the right thing, she called the rightful owner, and what reward does she get ? ...................

Come on, your friend owes the landlady.
 
Landlady called my friend after the yacht club member saw it underneath the pub, behind the concrete pillars. Certainly not in full view. He then went to the landlady and told her whose it was.

If you had been there, heard the conversation then you would see why it upset me. Dont know why as it aint my dinghy. If she had kept it without trying to find whoes it is this can be classed as "Theft by finding"...... It was a straight and simple "how can I earn out of someone else's misfortune".
 
Started work in Tewkesbury many yeqrs ago, sister used to own a pub there, know a few of them pretty well. Which pub are we talking about?
 
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If she had kept it without trying to find whoes it is this can be classed as "Theft by finding"...... It was a straight and simple "how can I earn out of someone else's misfortune".

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Unless the laws of salvage change the theft act so you can't steal a boat if you find it floating around without a crew , then this is a classic case of theft by finding , the intention to permanently deprive the owner of his property is indicated by the apparent attempt to hide it . Found property should be notified to local police but you don't say if it was . If not then instead of forking out a reward your friend could offer to report the theft instead . Just because you find a wallet in the road and there's no obvious means of identifying the owner doesn't mean the wallet and contents are yours to keep , if you do it's plain and simple , you are a thief . Same applies to this
 
The Police would take no action, quoting little used laws would not help here. I know of cases where stolen cars are found concealed on the theives property and the police still do not prosecute. In my case, theives left finger prints that the police refused to test, so please don't use the law as a reason to do the right thing, that is not how things work now.

If the landlady did nothing and the case went to court, the fact that another party could access the PUBLIC House indicates that it would be impossible to prove the Landlady had in fact any knowledge of the boat's wherabouts.

Doing the right thing is no longer something that society holds as important, sure some people will still hold onto these values, as do I (being long in tooth /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif). But the numbers of people that would are rapidly becoming a minority (hence the proliferation of CCTV).

The difficulty in this case is that new facts keep being introduced.

However, even with the facts we have,

1. The boat was returned to the rightful owner
2. The landlady contacted the rightful owner

The landlady deserves some kind of reward, as she could have

1. Done nothing
2. Dumped it
3. Sold it
4. Left it in the car park where kids or parking cars could have damaged it further
5. Given it to a friend
6. Converted it into a flower pot.
7. Claimed ownership
8. Clamped it pending a release fee
9. Claimed for damage it caused on her property

All of which would have resulted in either no boat or a lot of cost to recover.

I agree the manners of the landlady were not straight out of Dixon of Dock Green, and I sympathise with the hurt caused, but given society as it is (rather than as we would like it) the other side of the coin needs to be considered.

i.e. The owner has had a huge stroke of luck, and is not prepared to share it, and worse, probably added to the numbers of people who would not put themselves out again.

I am only posting this because I have had stuff "lost" and would have dearly loved to be in the position to have seen it again, but the finders in my case never gave me an opportunity to be upset at their manners.
 
My how this seems to all be getting taken overly serious by the arm chair and other wise lawyers etc....

The fact is that during a time of devistation for many the finders first thought was " can I make a few quid out of this"


I am sure that if they had not made this desire so obvious they would have been rewarded..


Still sounds like a sad state of mind to me!


Jim
 
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