Originally Posted by arcimede$ View Post
If a clerk at a store (or bank) gives you more money back from a purchase than they should have, are you guilty of a crime? I'll bet the latter situation has happened to every one of us.
If I am given incorrect change I always point it out to the clerk because I know they will be held responsible for the shortage later. The same thing when the bank puts extra money in my account. This happened to me about 14 or 15 years ago:

My BofA statement arrives in the mail and my checking account didn't balance. It said I had an extra $200 in it. I went through my check register and I just couldn't find my error. So I called the bank. The bank told me that I made a $200 cash deposit at an ATM. Right then I knew the bank made an error. Back in those days I never put cash in an ATM. Remember, this was years ago when checks and cash would go into an envelope -- they weren't the ATMs like today that actually counted the currency.

I told the bank they made a mistake -- and that I would never put cash in an ATM. I said the money belongs to someone else. The BofA rep said they would investigate. Nine months later I checked back and they said they found no error. So I added the $200 to my balance.