Cabbie returns wallet with nearly $6,000<!-- /headline --><!-- subhead --><!-- /subhead --><!-- byline -->
Published: February 8, 2007
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<!-- /article tools - narrow (used with span photos) --><!-- copy -->LYNNWOOD, Washington: A taxicab driver says he never thought twice about returning a wallet containing $5,950 (€4,580).
"If money doesn't belong to me, I don't keep it," said Vinod Mago, 55, an Indian immigrant. "I know God is watching everybody, every second."
Mago had just started his shift Feb. 1 when his taxi coordinator called to say a distraught man was missing his wallet.
Mago found the wallet in the backseat and raced to the airport in time to return it to the owner, who gave him and the taxi coordinator $100 (€77) each in gratitude.
The wallet's owner said he was planning to buy a car with the cash.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/08/america/NA-GEN-US-Honest-Cabbie.php
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Cabbie returns bag of diamonds worth $30K
BY JOHN VALENTI
Newsday Staff Writer
February 8, 2007
Queens cab driver Osman Chowdhury said Wednesday he never once considered keeping the 31 diamond rings he found inside a suitcase left in his cab by a Dallas woman who had given him a 30-cent tip.
"Why would I think I could keep it?" said Chowdhury, 41, of Sunnyside. "It wasn't mine."
Instead, Chowdhury did the right thing: He helped his supervisor track down the woman and returned the suitcase, a laptop computer and the diamond rings. He seems embarrassed by those who think what he did Monday is extraordinary.
"I just do my job," said the native of Bangladesh, who has been in New York since 1992.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, is a jeweler from Dallas, and thanked Chowdhury with a $100 reward, he said. Chowdhury, who said he works 12 hours a day, seven days a week, declined at first.
Chowdhury, who is single, said Monday night began as it usually does. He started work at about 5 p.m. and delivered a fare from Queens to Penn Station. He picked up the woman at the Hilton in midtown.
She asked to go to East 35th Street between Second and Third avenues. The fare was $10.70. She gave Chowdhury a $20 and asked for $9 change.
The cabbie continued working without incident until he picked up a group of three some time around 10 p.m. at East 27th Street and Lexington Avenue. The group had luggage and upon opening the trunk, Chowdhury found a suitcase.
He moved it to the front seat and he searched the outside for a name tag or identification. There was none. He took it to his taxi garage on 28th Street.
There he and his supervisor opened the suitcase, looking for identification, and found the computer and diamonds.
It was hours before they could track down the fare. She arrived at the depot well after midnight and offered the reward.
Before the woman left the cab depot, Chowdhury and his boss asked how much the diamonds were worth.
"She told me more than $30,000," he said.
http://www.amny.com/news/local/ny-licab0208,0,4587350.story?coll=am-local-headlines
Published: February 8, 2007
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<!-- /article tools - narrow (used with span photos) --><!-- copy -->LYNNWOOD, Washington: A taxicab driver says he never thought twice about returning a wallet containing $5,950 (€4,580).
"If money doesn't belong to me, I don't keep it," said Vinod Mago, 55, an Indian immigrant. "I know God is watching everybody, every second."
Mago had just started his shift Feb. 1 when his taxi coordinator called to say a distraught man was missing his wallet.
Mago found the wallet in the backseat and raced to the airport in time to return it to the owner, who gave him and the taxi coordinator $100 (€77) each in gratitude.
The wallet's owner said he was planning to buy a car with the cash.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/08/america/NA-GEN-US-Honest-Cabbie.php
<!-- sidebar -->
and
Cabbie returns bag of diamonds worth $30K
BY JOHN VALENTI
Newsday Staff Writer
February 8, 2007
Queens cab driver Osman Chowdhury said Wednesday he never once considered keeping the 31 diamond rings he found inside a suitcase left in his cab by a Dallas woman who had given him a 30-cent tip.
"Why would I think I could keep it?" said Chowdhury, 41, of Sunnyside. "It wasn't mine."
Instead, Chowdhury did the right thing: He helped his supervisor track down the woman and returned the suitcase, a laptop computer and the diamond rings. He seems embarrassed by those who think what he did Monday is extraordinary.
"I just do my job," said the native of Bangladesh, who has been in New York since 1992.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, is a jeweler from Dallas, and thanked Chowdhury with a $100 reward, he said. Chowdhury, who said he works 12 hours a day, seven days a week, declined at first.
Chowdhury, who is single, said Monday night began as it usually does. He started work at about 5 p.m. and delivered a fare from Queens to Penn Station. He picked up the woman at the Hilton in midtown.
She asked to go to East 35th Street between Second and Third avenues. The fare was $10.70. She gave Chowdhury a $20 and asked for $9 change.
The cabbie continued working without incident until he picked up a group of three some time around 10 p.m. at East 27th Street and Lexington Avenue. The group had luggage and upon opening the trunk, Chowdhury found a suitcase.
He moved it to the front seat and he searched the outside for a name tag or identification. There was none. He took it to his taxi garage on 28th Street.
There he and his supervisor opened the suitcase, looking for identification, and found the computer and diamonds.
It was hours before they could track down the fare. She arrived at the depot well after midnight and offered the reward.
Before the woman left the cab depot, Chowdhury and his boss asked how much the diamonds were worth.
"She told me more than $30,000," he said.
http://www.amny.com/news/local/ny-licab0208,0,4587350.story?coll=am-local-headlines
