Woman Faces Year In Prison For Trying To Return Lost Wallet On Her Own

The moral of this story, we suppose, is if the police ask you to give them the lost wallet you found, you should do it. …Or maybe it’s that if you see a lost wallet, you should run away.

A woman in Casper, WY saw such a wallet and, being a Good Samaritan type, she picked it up and started trying to contact the owner.

“I left messages at his home phone after I found his number on the Internet,” the woman told ABC News in Denver. “I called his bank and a Harley Davidson dealer listed on a business card in his wallet.”

She also contacted the police. Eventually, the owner of the wallet filed a police report.

From ABC Denver:

Police phoned [the woman] back and asked her for the wallet. She said she was going to hang on to it until she heard from [the owner] what he wanted her to do. She said police became aggressive and demanding, but she held firm. “I just didn’t need to be bullied,” she said. Police then arrested [the woman], and charged her with interference. “I said, ‘Are you serious? I’m going to jail for trying to return a guy’s wallet to him,'” [the woman] said.

The first attempt to prosecute apparently ended in a mistrial, so they’re going at it again. She faces a possible sentence of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine if convicted of interference.

The owner of the wallet says he’d love it if both the police and the women just dropped the whole thing and shook hands.

Woman Arrested After Trying To Return Wallet [ABC Denver]