Auto technician returns $170,000 - Money found in vehicle during service check
Published:Sunday | December 4, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Leon Davis was alone when he saw a semi-transparent bag with money in the vehicle he was checking for servicing in late November. The auto technician was with what was later found to be $170,000 for "a minute or two", before calling it to the acting supervisor's attention.
With no colleagues or cameras around, if he had taken the money, the 27 year-old said, "I could have easily gone with it. Nobody saw until I brought it to their attention. I was the only one who would have known".
And that includes the owners, an elderly couple from Portland who had taken their Grand Vitara in for servicing at Stewart's Auto Sales, Orchard Road, St Andrew.
The money had long gone missing and Davis confirmed, "based on my observation, it had been there for quite some time. The bag was dusty and some rust was on it".
He could see the money as well, $1,000 and $500 notes, in the bag between the rear of the glove compartment and the air-conditioning filter. The notes were "dust-up and cobweb-up. At first I did not know the amount, but it looked like quite a lot".
"From I got the vehicle I was told it was two elderly people from Portland. It was a priority to fix it. I had the money in my hand and I was thinking about them and saying who to tell what kind of stress they are going through. I said the best thing to do is return it," he said. "You never can tell what they are going through financially."
There was a longer-standing reason, as well.
"From me a grow up, me a say me want to work for my own," Davis said. "Yeah, me could keep the money and them have a hard Christmas." And, he said, "crosses will follow you".
"I feel good in myself," he said.
Davis said his colleagues have not been critical of his decision and his mother and grandmother are proud. "But you have some friends who say, 'you get your Christmas and give it away!'" he said, laughing