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Mike · Site Admin Joined: 07 Sep 2004 Posts: 4512 Location:

220,000 baht in the wallet

Boonlua Chatree

A taxi driver from Bangkok returned a wallet containing more than 200,000 baht that he discovered in his taxi after delivering a tourist from Bangkok International Airport to Pattaya.

Kamchai Wannakit, 37, a cab driver for SP Siam Inter Co Ltd, alerted Pattaya police duty officer Lieutenant Colonel Preecha Samrit to the fact he had discovered his passenger’s wallet when he stopped to clean his vehicle at the Bang Na toll way, on his way back to Bangkok.

Kamchai said that the wallet, containing 3,000 pounds (approx 220,000 baht) had been left on the back seat along with two cell phones. He stated that he had driven the passenger from the airport to Pattaya for the price of 1,500 baht. It was beyond his capability to track down the foreign customer to return his property, therefore he kindly asked the police to do so.

Around the same time, British visitor Ian Richardson, 37, came into the police station. Advised of the discovery of his property, Richardson said that he had often heard about the honesty of Thai people, and now he knows it to be true. He wholeheartedly thanked Kamchai for returning his money back to him.

Richardson said he had just gone to the police station to file a report and ask the police to track down the taxi driver. He didn’t know the driver’s name or license plate number. He didn’t expect that he would receive his lost money and property. Now, he said, he will tell other tourists when he goes back to England about safety for tourists visiting Thailand.

Richardson offered 5,000 baht to Kamchai as a reward, but the taxi driver at first refused and told him that he is always sincere in his service to customers.

Kamchai told reporters that he is from Khamkuankaew district in Yasothorn province, and that he had moved to Bangkok to work as a taxi driver. His wife Patchara, 35, is a hairdresser, and they have a six-year-old daughter. Times are tight because of the increased gasoline prices, he says, but he must bear this.

This is not the first time that one of his customers has left their property in his taxi. He has always tried to return any lost property to customers. This time he was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to because he was already 100 kilometres away from Pattaya, and was happy and relieved that he was able to reach Richardson.
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Alan Stepney · Centurion Joined: 05 Nov 2004 Posts: 853 Location:

There ARE honest taxi drivers in most if not all countries.
What a shame that it is sufficiently unusual to make the headlines.