Singapore cabbie returns B27.6m to Thai couple

[StrontiumDog]

Phuket: Singapore cabbie returns B27.6m to Thai couple

Singapore cabbie returns B27.6m to Thai couple

THAILAND: A Singaporean taxi driver has been heralded as a hero after he returned Sg$1.1 million (B27.6 million) in cash to a vacationing Thai couple who left the money in his cab.

Agence France-Presse
Tuesday 20 November 2012, 04:02PM

Sia Ka Tian, 70, was shocked to find the money in a black paper bag on the back seat on Monday after he dropped the couple off at a shopping centre.

"When I saw the money, I thought, trouble is here. I was sure there was at least $200,000 in the bag," the Straits Times quoted the 31-year veteran in the taxi business as saying.

But when he brought the money to transport company ComfortDelGro's lost-and-found office, his stunned colleagues counted Sg$1.1 million in thousand-dollar bills.

"The money is unimportant to me. It doesn't belong to me, so how can I use it?" he told the newspaper.

The Thai couple reported the loss to the transport company and Sia was waiting for them when they arrived to claim the money.

The report did not say what the couple were doing with such a large sum.

The driver received an undisclosed cash reward from the grateful couple, whose names have been withheld, and the company also plans to give him an award for good service.

"Finding one million dollars in cash is not an everyday affair and in fact, we wonder how many people would have possibly been tempted" to pocket it, company spokeswoman Tammy Tan told AFP.

"We are immensely proud of him and are glad that the passengers recovered their money."

It was the most valuable item returned by a cabbie working for the company. In 2009, another taxi driver returned five kilograms (11 pounds) of gold bars worth Sg$377,000.

[alitongkat]

so much money in cash - in black paper bag?

what tourist goes with a black paper bag full of money to a shopping center?

some criminal deal and the idiots forgot it in the taxi...?
next assignment: back to peeking through toilet holes....

[Bangyai]

what tourist goes with a black paper bag full of money to a shopping center?

Maybe they wanted to buy the shopping centre ?

[pickel]

If that happened in most countries in the west, and they couldn't prove how they earned it, they would be charged with money laundering and the money would be seized.

[aging one]

True that is, but we can only hope Singapore investigates how they got it in, or where they withdrew it from. Because nothing will be heard on the Thai side. IMHO.

[sunsetter]

If that happened in most countries in the west, and they couldn't prove how they earned it, they would be charged with money laundering and the money would be seized

never heard of anyone handing in that amount of dosh found in the uk mate, that would be long gone and spent before any authorities got wind of it if it was a uk taxi

[English Noodles]

wish i had got in the taxi after them.

[aging one]

In American English. No Shit!!