Uber driver Gurbrinder Singh is being hailed a hero for returning his passenger’s purse which contained $10,000 in cash and some important documents.
On the day of the incident on October 23, Mr Singh recalled that he ferried at least three customers around the Melbourne suburbs of Box Hill and Richmond.
“One of the customers was in such a rush that she left her purse in the back-seat of my car,” Mr Singh told SBS Punjabi.
“I had requested Uber to connect me to this customer who later told me that she was extremely stressed and was also afraid of losing her hard-earned money.”
Mr Singh said Uber’s dispatcher system was able to connect to this customer in a short span of time.
The passenger counting her money while sitting in Gurbrinder Singh’s car. Source: Supplied
“Uber immediately came to my rescue. It was very important to reach her in time as she seemed very shaky and upset when I spoke to her over the phone," he said.
“She was very appreciative and also praised my honesty. But, I feel there is nothing special about it as I was just doing my routine job, something that I would do on any given day.”
Mr Singh who lives in Melton, Victoria with his family, migrated to Australia from India in 2009.
Screenshot of Uber's acknowledgement as shared with Gurbrinder Singh on 23 October, 2019. Source: Supplied
While attributing his act to the Sikh principles, he added that he felt that it was in fact his duty to return the bag where it belonged.
“We must return what is not ours. It doesn’t matter if it has a value of a single dollar or tens of thousands of dollars,” he said.
Mr Singh said that he is confident that his story is not the first and it won’t be the last.
He said that he was sharing the incident in the hope that others too would be inspired by his actions.
The Singh family hails from village Dhianpur in the Amritsar district of Punjab. Source: Supplied
“I wanted to share this story to tell people that there is plenty of good happening around us but it is just that is it is not being shared with everyone,” he added.
"At Uber we live by the mantra - 'do the right thing' - and clearly Mr Singh believes that too. Like the thousands of driver partners across the country he takes great pride in getting people safely from A to B and connecting people with moments, people and places that matter," an Uber spokesperson said in a written statement to SBS Punjabi.
