A 55-year-old taxi driver, Ralph Vlermuis, has been praised for his honesty after returning a passenger’s wallet containing N$1 500 and other valuables he found in his taxi.
Vlermuis found the wallet after dropping off a passenger who had travelled from their home to the Grove Mall.
The passenger, who had been on his way to buy clothes for church, only realised after getting out of the taxi and entering the mall that his wallet was missing.
According to a relative of the passenger, who asked not to be named, the passenger initially believed that he had been pick-pocketed.
“He was convinced that he was pick-pocketed,” the relative says.
The situation changed when the City Police contacted the passenger’s relative and informed him that his wallet had been found.
“I got a call from the City Police. They are looking for me and I’m like, that is me. He says, do you have a son by such a name who stays with you? I said yes. Well, we’ve got his wallet, you must come and get it,” he says.
The wallet was later collected from the City Police, where the family found that its contents were untouched.
“He went there, he found his wallet with all the content including the N$1 500 untouched,” the relative says.
Vlermuis says he had looked inside the wallet and saw the money, but decided that it did not belong to him.
“I looked in the wallet and I saw it. No, no, not mine. I can’t take it. Maybe that person really needs that money,” he says.
He then decided to hand the wallet over to the City Police.
The passenger’s relative says he was impressed that Vlermuis, who drives a taxi, chose to return everything instead of keeping the cash or other valuables.
“It’s not even a Yango, it’s a normal taxi that we flagged down. He could have taken the cash. He could have maybe taken the IDs to the police and said, no, I don’t know if maybe customers took it. He didn’t. He left everything untouched and just gave it to the police,” he says.
As a gesture of appreciation, the passenger’s relative gave Vlermuis the N$1 500 that had been in the wallet, together with an additional N$500.
He says he hopes the story will also help Vlermuis find permanent employment.
“If anyone is out there looking for a driver, Ralph is the one,” he says.
Vlermuis, who is currently looking for permanent employment, says he would like to find a job that offers greater stability.
The relative says the incident serves as a reminder that acts of honesty and kindness still happen in everyday life.
“It’s an incredible story. I just hope somebody can, give him some exposure in the media, to tell the story that people like this still exist,” he says.
