Little ethical dilemma

[ClassicBeth]

Yesterday I was at a lovely park with a few friends and all of our kids. It was obviously the type of place for a wedding reception: big pavilion, benches, wooden fences, and a big tent was even set up not too far from where we were having lunch. There were a couple of workmen here and there cleaning the facilities and doing groundskeeping.

Ok, to the point: I looked up at a little power box and immediately noticed a Canon lens hood looking very abandoned, but in perfect shape. In other words, it didn't look like it had been sitting there subject to the weather for very long. I think it was this one:

Amazon.com: Canon ET83BII Lens Hood for Canon EF 200 f/2.8L II USM SLR Lens: Camera & Photo

I looked around for anyone it might belong to. There was a young lady there taking pictures of a family, but it did not belong to her (I asked). I was at the park for almost two hours and no one came to claim it. I sincerely felt bad for the person who lost it, as it's a fifty-dollar item to replace. But what to do? Leave it? Take it? Would the groundskeepers just throw it in the garbage? That would be a waste. The tent looked like a set-up for a wedding reception on the other side of the park, so maybe the photog for that came early to scope out the scenery and left it behind? There was no park building with a lost and found.

If I saw a dollar bill on the ground with no apparent owner anywhere nearby, I'd have no problem keeping it. But I'm the type who couldn't even steal a piece of gum. So after much inner turmoil I just left the hood right where it was sitting. My reasoning was, if I was the one who had left it behind, I would really want it to be there if I finally remembered and came back looking for it.

What would you have done?

[candleman]

if you had found the lens i may be interested.. but a hood?
hardly worth worrying about.
people loose stuff all the time. it doesnt have to be your problem.


i would have left it there if it didnt fit one of my lenses.

[dcclark]

Lens hoods are not much to write home about. I've lost them before... I didn't look very hard either, honestly. If you REALLY are worried about it, tape a note to the box where you found it, with an email address to contact you at. But I really wouldn't worry.

[samhail]

I wouldn't worry about it but I think that it is very commendable of you to not take it. Honesty is hard to find these days. Good for you.

[A-Lyn20]

I guess you could have dropped it off at the local police department. Or if the park had an information center, you could have taken it there.

[PnwGuy]

Commendable, but I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe post it under lost and found on Craigslist? If nobody claims it, move it over to the For Sale section.

[fletch]

Do you have a Canon f/2.8 200mm lens without a hood?

[ClassicBeth]

@ candleman - Yeah, finding a lens would be a different story! I'm sure other people wouldn't walk right by that like a plain old hood.
@ fletch - Nope, don't own the lens. Of course acquiring a hood would be the perfect reason to buy the lens, right? (Used, I guess, because the L's come with the hood new...)

I know it wasn't THAT big of a deal, but hey, fifty bucks is still fifty bucks if the guy has to replace it. I just hope it didn't get thrown away. Oh well.

[ZELDAdog]

Oh...I wish I could remember the blog...probably wouldn't have helped in this case. But the guy set up a blog for lost and found cameras...if you found a camera with pics, you could send him the pics and people who were looking could identify their camera by the pics.

I would have picked it up and put an add in the paper, made a flyer to put up on the park's events board, etc. I would have made every effort to find the owner... Someone who didn't know what it was would probably throw it away...