Cab Driver in Singapore Finds $900k in Cash, Manages to Elude Certain Death

SINGAPORE — A Singaporean taxi driver has been heralded as a hero after he returned Sg$1.1 million ($900,000) in cash to a vacationing Thai couple who left the money in his cab.

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.

I had to write about this because my mind is blown by it on a 900,000 different levels. The obvious questions come to mind: “What the hell is anybody on the planet doing with $900k cash?” “What the hell kind of person loses $900k of cash that they’re carrying around?” You gotta be some kind of moron to lose that money. Or you’re worth 900 billion dollars and this is chump change to you. Also, people hailing this cabbie as a hero? Please. Dude was looking out for himself and himself only.

Everybody knows that if you find $900k in cash in a paper bag, there’s only a couple things going down. 1) you’re being set up, so return the money. 2) you’re dealing with people that have the means to end your life, so if they legitimately lost it, you better return the money. Biggest no brainer ever. You’re a freaking cabbie. You all the sudden have $900k and you’re just gonna take it, fly under the radar, keep your job, and say you never saw it? Good luck with that.

$900k in cash. Somebody needs to somebody’s ass for carrying that around.

Love how the story says, “The report did not say what the couple were doing with such a large sum.” Why not? They didn’t feel comfortable talking about the massive drug deal that was about to go down? Weapons deal? What else could be going on here? There is nothing not shady about having $900k in cash. If I’m the Singapore FBI, I’m watching these clowns like a hawk because they are up to zero bits of good. Report also says “It was the most valuable item returned by a cabbie working for the company” – gee, ya think? Nobody left a cool mill in a cab? Only to find out some other moron did happen to leave 11 pounds of gold freaking bars in a cab. GOLD BARS.  What we’ve got on our hands here is a good old-fashioned “dumb off” – who’s dumber? The $900k in cash couple or the 11lb of gold bars moron? Coin toss.

I want to make it clear, I’m not trying to knock the cabbie here. He’s seems a good dude. He made the right decision. Just saying it was the ONLY decision to make. Honestly, I think he’s kind of brilliant. Right off the bat. “When I saw the money, I thought, trouble is here.” Ya damn right trouble is here. Smarter words have never been spoken.

-bp

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