Honest cabbie is my friend for life, says passenger who left £10k in taxi
"Losing that money would have been the end of my business. I was physically sick." Those are the words of a passenger who left £10,000 in the back of a taxi in Walsall.
Adrian Quinn says that Good Samaritan cab driver Mohammed Nisar – who kept the money safe and returned it to him – is now a friend for life.
Mr Quinn, aged 46, was running late for one of his regular business trips to British Car Auctions in Walsall, from his home in Hereford, due to a train which had been cancelled. so took the money with him to the auction, rather than depositing it in the bank as usual.
When the 46 year old arrived at the town station he was about an hour behind schedule and did not have time to make his usual trip to the bank before the auction to deposit the money – so he took it with him in a rucksack.
But seconds after cabbie Mr Nisar dropped him off in Green Lane after he paid the £6.30 fare, Mr Quinn realised he had left the bag in the car.
"I was walking across the car park when I realised I hadn't got my bag. and I thought 'Oh my goodness'," he said. "I tried to flag down another taxi, but they all had fares.
"I was sick. My body just went into shut-down and I thought 'what am I going to do'. I was just in a daze.
Mr Quinn said it was unusual for him to carry so much money in the first place, but over the weekend he had cashed a cheque from his inheritance after his mother died in October.
He said that losing thousands of pounds of business cash would have had grave consequences for his CQ Cars company which he runs with wife Maria.
"If that bag had got lost it would have been the end of my business. We have built it up from nothing for the last nine years and we are sole traders. We don't have the backing of banks. It is hard work, but it earns us a living."
After eventually flagging down another cab the father-of-three arrived back at the station taxi rank in a flustered state to find Mr Nisar sitting in his cab with the bag safely on the passenger seat.
"I was very emotional. I said, 'Do you know what was in that bag? Put it this way, it is not a box of sandwiches or a newspaper. There is £10,000 in there'."
Mr Quinn gave the cabbie a cash reward to thank him – in an envelope marked 'to my best friend in the world' – and has invited Mr Nisar and his wife to his home for a family meal.
Mr Nisar who spoke to the Express & Star following the incident said: "Honesty is the best policy. My message to all of my taxi driving brothers is that if they find something valuable just give it back."
