Dishonest taxi driver keeps 70,000 baht found in his cab

A passenger filed a complaint to the police against an alleged dishonest taxi driver in Samut Prakarn province near Bangkok after he refused to return the 70,000 baht he found in the cab back to its owner. The taxi driver asked his friend to pretend the cash was hers and kept the money for himself.

The passenger, 43 year old Monchai Buppunchartnanon, explained to officers at Mueng Samut Prakarn Police Station that he booked a taxi via an application at noon on October 30. When he got into the car, he found a small bag packed with 1,000-baht banknotes in the back seat amounting to 70,000 baht.

The taxi driver told Monchai that the money must belong to a passenger using his service before him. The driver said that he had the previous passenger’s details and said he would get in touch and return the money.

Monchai decided to leave the money with the driver. He thought it would be good for the driver because the owner might reward him for returning the huge amount of money.

Monchai said he wanted to help the taxi driver to find the owner of the lost cash and urged the driver to report the money to the application call centre. Monchai then posted a video of the incident on social media.

Remarkably, the do-gooder faced a backlash from many netizens who said he made up the story.

Monchai contacted the application’s call centre the following day to ask for an update on the issue so he could respond to doubting netizens. The call centre informed him that the taxi driver had returned the money to a woman at 9am.

Monchai asked for her contact to confirm she is the actual owner. The woman told Monchai that she would pick up the money in the evening, which contradicted what the driver told the call centre.

Monchai urged the woman to go to a police station to authenticate she was the real owner but the woman refused.

The taxi driver called Monchai soon after and confessed that the woman was his friend, not the real owner of the lost cash.

The taxi driver asked Monchai to go along with his dishonest scheme but he refused and filed a complaint with the police.

Monchai emphasised that he did not make things up and was not involved in this cheating act. The money is still with the taxi driver.

Khaosod reported that the real owner has not contacted Mueng Samut Prakarn Police Station regarding the lost money. An officer reported that the police would search for the real owner of the cash and prosecute the taxi driver and others involved.