A taxi driver has returned cash worth about 140,000 baht and other items to a Vietnamese passenger who left her bag in his cab.
Chart Chantha, 44, of Surin province, returned the bag containing about US$4,000, a Samsung S7 smart phone and an iPhone 6 to Vu Thi Kim Phuong, 31, a Vietnamese businesswoman, at police-run FM91 traffic radio station on Thursday.
Mr Chart said he took three Vietnamese passengers, two men and a woman, from Soi Phetchaburi 15 to Si Mum Muang market in Pathum Thani around 10am on Tuesday. On the way, he talked with the passengers and learned they planned to buy sugar at the market for sale in Vietnam.
After dropping them off, he discovered one of them had left a bag in his taxi. He took it to the radio station and asked for help returning it to the owner.
“I have driven taxis for 20 years and often heard about passengers forgetting valuable items. Any money found left in my cab is not mine. My job is providing a taxi service. If a passenger leaves any valuables in my cab, I will return them to the owner,” Mr Chart said.
FM91 station manager Jitpongsai Sriwangpon said her staff checked several hotels on Soi Phetchaburi 15, looking for the owner of the bag, and they finally found where Ms Phuong was staying.
Ms Phuong had quickly reported the bag's loss to Khu Khod police in Pathum Thani, but could not remember the licence number of the pink cab she had left it in.
The happy Vietnamese woman gave the cab driver a cash reward equal to 35,000 baht.