Taxi driver finds $15,000 in his backseat, tracks down owners
Moshe Barkat of Bat Yam manages to locate the owners of the money, which was meant to fund treatment at Tel Aviv hospital: ‘They weren’t very excited to get the money back’
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Taxi driver Moshe Barkat, like many other cab drivers, is used to passengers forgetting items in his vehicle, but what he found in the back of his cab on Friday was truly unforgettable: some $15,000 in American cash.
Barkat, from the city of Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, told Channel 12 that he had worked as usual on Friday, with his passengers including an elderly woman in a wheelchair accompanied by two young men who asked to be taken to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.
At the end of his work day he noticed a black bag left on his back seat, and was surprised to find the money in organized stacks of $100 bills.
“I was in shock,” Barkat said. “People usually forget cellphones, small change, but this sort of sum?”
נהג המונית נדהם: תיק עם אלפי דולרים נשכח במושב האחורי > https://t.co/JixVUI1aRO @avivitmy pic.twitter.com/ZHYQ9j8pIe
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) December 8, 2019
With the help of his wife he tried to figure out which of his passengers had left the money behind, and eventually managed to locate the owners, who said it was intended to fund medical treatments at Ichilov Hospital.
“It’s funny, actually, they weren’t very excited to get the money back,” Barkat said. “I thought they would cry from joy, but it didn’t happen.”
“I am a man of faith,” he explained. “The money isn’t mine, and I returned it wholeheartedly.”
The Times of Israel Community.