A group of tourists have been left stunned after their Lanzarote taxi driver tracked them down to return £700 they left in the cab.
The Irish couple were left stunned when their wallet containing the money was returned to them after they left it in the back of a car.
The couple were in the Tias region of the Canary Islands when the incident happened earlier this year.
Tourist Laura Breen had had issues using her cards before she left for her holiday so had had to take out cash to pay for the trip. Ms Breen lost her wallet when she and her partner travelled from Avenida de Las Playas to a Chinese restaurant.
Later, when he noticed Ms Breen had left her wallet behind, taxi driver Manolo Mayorga reported it to the Tias taxi station.
Speaking La Provincia, taxi driver Manolo Mayorga, 47, said: “I always like to check the back of the taxi because, normally, things are left behind and to prevent another customer who gets in later from keeping them, I look to see if they have forgotten something.”
Mr Mayorga added that he “got a little scared because of all the money the poor lady lost” and said he checked the wallet “to see what the lady had abandoned”.
After Ms Breen reported that she believed her wallet was missing, Mr Mayorga found them at the Jable Bermudas apartments.
Thanking Mr Mayorga for his kindness and assistance, Ms Breen and her partner gave him a generous tip.
Mr Mayorga said: “The lady gave me 50 pounds in one hand and the man 40 in the other. I will exchange them the day I don’t have anything to eat and, in the meantime, I will have it as a souvenir with my collection of banknotes.”
Following the incident on November 20, Ms Breen decided to take to Facebook to express in full her gratitude to Mr Mayorga and confessed she did not believe she would be able to recover the money.
She said: “Calamity Jane at it again. First night here in my favourite place and lost my purse with £700 in it. I don’t often take that amount of cash but I lost my bank cards last week and didn’t get it sorted in time.
“Figured out that I’d probably dropped it in the taxi and I gave the depot a call, though I wasn’t very hopeful. So delighted and relieved that our lovely driver Manolo had my purse and delivered it to me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, some decent people in this world.”
She wrote that there were some “decent people left in this world” and described Mr Mayorga as “honest” and “brilliant”.
This wouldn’t be the last time Mr Mayorga would come to a tourist’s rescue. Later he returned a passenger’s mobile phone.
Furthermore, before the incident with Ms Breen, he returned another woman’s wallet which had 30 euros.
On that occasion, the woman did not claim the wallet, but Mr Mayorga said he would keep it safe “in case she comes back and asks for it”.
