No, sweetie. We got it figured out.
Remove *her* money from the account. Try for the next two weeks to contact the bank and her company and get it straightened out.
If it’s not resolved after two weeks, open a new acct with a new bank and let the process straighten itself out. (We all have full faith that it will. It might take a couple of audits, but somebody will figure it out eventually.)
Then she can get on with her life. She doesn’t get into trouble by moving the money. She can destroy the checks for that acct and the ATM card to protect the money if it takes a long time to work itself out.
After 4 years, if it’s still there, then you’re right. It is hers.
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As for the morality of her keeping the money after four years (it’s not going to happen), the way I look at it is this:
Let’s say that a female friend is visiting your home and she’s wearing her boyfriend’s coat. It’s an expensive leather coat - it has some value.
She forgets the coat at your house.
If, after a couple of week of searching and tracing the lost coat back to your house, her or her boyfriend come over and ask for it back - and if you tell them to go pack sand,(they left it so it’s yours now) you would be a thief and very wrong.
But if you spend weeks contacting the girl and her boyfriend by every means possible and they say, ‘yeah, we’ll pick it up’ or ignore your calls and emails, there does reach a point where a reasonable person gives up.
After four years, the boyfriend comes back and wants the coat and you no longer have it, he’s out of luck. “Brother, it’s been four freakin’ years. I sold it.”
He can get mad. He can shout that this was a three thousand dollar coat. He can hire a lawyer and even a judge will look at all of your attempts to contact him and his girlfriend and how much time lapsed and tell him that he’s out of luck.
That’s why there is such a thing as a statute of limitations. There comes a point where it is the other person’s responsibility to pick up their own property. If they don’t, then it’s not everyone else’s responsibility to protect and keep track of their stuff.
At this point, being responsible for someone else’s money is a terrible burden for my daughter. She *really* doesn’t want to screw this up. After 4 years of carrying that burden (after a serious effort to return the money) she’s allowed to let that go.
Make sense?
I’m totally with you across the board. Especially on the morality of it eventually becoming your. The one throwing around the idea that it’s never your money was being silly. Especially given the nature of the law and the extreme wait. Even more so when you realize how much the laws favor the bank anyway, if their error costs you money you have 60 days, they get 4 years.
I’m sure this is a burden on her. All the responsibility, plus of course the practical demonstration of how things you should be able to rely on (banks doing simple math) you really can’t. The good news is she’s got good parenting. Of course the reality is this will probably all settle out by Tuesday afternoon.
Have fun out there.