Bus driver finds hundreds of dollars and returns it to its owner

Transit driver returns wallet full of cash A Calgary Transit driverreturned a wallet full of cash to a man who needed it to pay the rent.

Calgary — With Christmas over and 2021 fast approaching the last thing you want to realize is you may have lost your wallet.  Yet that’s what happened to 23-year-old Jacob Tarcon, a construction worker who just got home after finishing work late Tuesday afternoon.

Tarcon says he  noticed he had a Facebook message from a Calgary Transit supervisor asking if he had lost his wallet.

The first thing Tarcon thought was that it was a scam.

“I honestly thought it was a spam message and almost deleted it,” he said.

First though, he had to confirm that he still had his.

“I decided to take a look around," he said, "and realized that my wallet was gone.”

Tarcon had no idea how his wallet fell out of his pocket, then started to stress out because the wallet contained $400 for his rent and all his identification.

That's when the transit supervisor informed him that the contents appeared to be intact.

Tarcon was very relieved - although 'relieved' might be an understatement - to know his wallet was found by Calgary Transit and that it would be returned to him.

Route number 23

Benti Khaira has been driving for Calgary Transit for 15 years and says that she was driving bus route number 23 and had a time point break at 4:30 at the intersection of Rundlehorn Dr and 52 St in the N.E.

When her bus was empty, she took the opportunity to inspect the rear exit door to make sure it was clear of slush or snow and also clean the interior of the bus of any garbage.

It was a routine procedure for all Calgary bus drivers that they do every shift.

“I saw the wallet laying on the chair in the back of the bus.” said Khaira. “The wallet was heavy and hard to close and it looked like there was a couple hundred dollars in it.”

She called transit control and they alerted operations supervisor Balginder Dhaliwal. He met up with her and collected the lost wallet.

Dhaliwal left Tarcon a message through Facebook. Tarcon called Dhaliwal and they had a plan for Dhaliwal to drop off the wallet.

Antidote to the pandemic

Tarcon said the gesture was a perfect antidote to the social alienation brought on by the pandemic.

“It brings back hope," he said, "especially with all that’s going on, stress and panic with people just scared to be around each other now.”

“It’s not a great time now," he added, "and the fact that people are still willing to sacrifice their own time and go out of their way and give back to the community it’s just amazing to hear.”

Dhaliwal says he’s very proud of all his drivers because they all go above and beyond and Khaira showed all transit riders that they are in good hands.

“I want to applaud our driver, a lot of the credit goes to her," he said. "First of all discovering the wallet, then following the proper procedure. It was a happy ending story all around!”