PUBLISHED : 21 Aug 2023 at 20:51
A taxi driver has been widely praised after he returned a wallet containing over 370,000 baht in foreign currencies to a Bangladeshi tourist who had dropped it in his cab on Saturday.
The driver, identified as Pornsak Phunee, called FM91 Traffipro radio station after a passenger found a long, black wallet in the backseat of his yellow-green taxi.
Inside the wallet, he found some photos, a credit card bearing the name Jahirul Islam Munshi, along with US$10,500 (368,000 baht) and 7,050 Indian rupees (3,000 baht) in cash.
Mr Pornsak then remembered that he had just driven three foreign tourists from Suvarnabhumi Airport to the India Emporium department store in Bangkok’s Phahurat neighbourhood before he picked up the passenger who found the wallet.
On Monday, Mr Pornsak, accompanied by Jaitana Sriwangpol and Sakon Thawornkarn, both executives at FM9 radio, returned all belongings to Jahirul Islam Munshi at the Royal Thai Police Headquarters.
Mr Munshi said that he was overjoyed that Mr Pornsak returned his wallet and cash to him.
“Huge thanks to FM91 Trafficpro and the taxi driver. I would like to call him my brother. I am very impressed and happy,” said Mr Munshi.
Mr Pornsak has worked as a taxi driver for over ten years.
He said he works in Bangkok to send money to his family back in Kalasin.
Whenever he finds an item left by a passenger in his car, he would alert the traffic radio station in an attempt to return them to the rightful owner, he said.