02 Apr Taxi Driver Rewarded For His Good Deed
Why is it whenever you sit down to watch the news or read the newspaper everything is always so negative these days? Crime, corruption and terrorism fill the air ways. Despite what we are led to believe, the state of the world isn’t as bad as you think.
Enter Atambeer ‘Ruby’ Kalra. Ruby has been a Black & White Cabs driver for nearly 9 years and has become an integral part of the Business Class fleet, winning ‘Best Business Class Driver’ in 2014.
On Thursday the 8th of June 2017, Ruby was transporting an 89-year-old female veteran from the Brisbane City to Chermside. It was after a quick stop to the toilet that Ruby noticed that the driver of the black Range Rover he was now following had left a bag on top of his car.
“The driver and his wife had been smoking next to the car. When they had finished their cigarettes they both entered the car, forgetting they had placed the bag on the roof,” Ruby explains.
As the car turned through an intersection the bag slid off the roof and lay in the middle of the busy intersection.
With the permission of his passenger, Ruby pulled over his taxi and waited for a break in the traffic to retrieve the lost bag.
With the bag now in his possession, Ruby tried to follow the Range Rover but lost it amongst the busy city traffic. What made things worse was the fact that Ruby and his passenger were also unable to view the cars number plate.
As Ruby arrived at Chermside to drop off his passenger he began the process of trying to track down the owner of the lost bag.
Rudy made a video call to his wife as he began to go through the bag.
“I wanted to have a witness to what I was doing so that nobody could accuse me of taking anything from the bag,” Ruby explains.
“The bag contained an Apple iPad, a folder filled with bank statements and documents and an envelope containing a bundle of $50 notes, totalling $6,000.”
The bank documents and statements all had the same name on them, “Daniel”. Ruby used this name, phone numbers and email addresses on the bank documents to try and track down Daniel, but all his correspondence received no response. He even went to the address on the documents, only to find that Daniel had recently moved out.
Facebook was his last resort, and after a few messages and voice mails left on Daniel’s Facebook, finally Ruby received a call from Daniel.
Ruby was quick to explain that the bag was safe and that he hadn’t taken anything. Daniel said the thought never crossed his mind, because he knew Ruby wouldn’t go to so much trouble to track him down if he had taken something from the bag.
When Ruby finally met with Daniel to return his bag, Daniel explained that the money wasn’t important and that the iPad and bank documents had more value to him and his business.
Daniel tried to give Ruby a cash reward, but Ruby refused.
“If you yell ‘hello’ down a well, it yells ‘hello’ back. I just wanted Daniel to go and do something good for someone else and continue to pass on the good deed. That was enough reward for me,” Ruby says.
Ruby had his daughter by his side and Daniel grabbed some cash and handed it to her.
“This is a reward for your dad because of the good thing he did for me. Give it to him when you get home,” he said.
When Ruby and his daughter arrived home, they couldn’t believe their eyes – Daniel had given him a $3,000 reward. A very, very good days work for a taxi driver!
Daniel has since been in contact with Black & White Cabs to commend Ruby and has said his business and his family will now use Black & White Cabs exclusively.
In a time when we are surrounded by so many negative images in the media, it is nice to know there are still some honest people out there.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]