CHENNAI: M Moorthy, a 38-year-old who drives a battery operated vehicle for Urbaser, was on his regular ‘route’ in Adyar zone collecting waste from the 400 odd houses he is assigned to when he found a geometry box stuffed with foreign currency.
He wasted no time in calling up his supervisor K Selvam and together, returned the geometry box to its owner Mary Chitra, a resident of Arundale street in Mylapore.
“I believe that whatever is destined for me will come to me the right way,” said Moorthy. Before he joined Urbaser, he was an auto driver and before that, a painter.
“I was not getting any trips while I was driving the auto. So, I joined here. The auto stands idle in my house now,” he said. His wife works as a domestic help, the eldest of his two daughters studies B Com while the youngest is in class 11 in a Government school. The family resides in Kannagi Nagar.
This was not the first time that Moorthy had encountered a similar situation. Six years ago when he was a painter, he found a bag lying outside a school near Tharamani. He looked inside to find Rs 70,000 in cash and a mobile phone.
“I traced the owner by calling the numbers on the mobile phone. The owner was happy to get the bag back. They offered me Rs 500 for my honesty but I refused to accept the money. I told them to give it to someone else who may need it more than I did,” he said.
Selvam who works as the supervisor for Urbaser in ward 181 said that these instances were not uncommon in their line of work.
“Last month a couple on the beach lost their ring. They saw our staff cleaning and put in a word with them. Our staff found the ring while cleaning and returned it to them,” he said.
Similarly, Sathish R, the unit officer said that Balu C, another Battery operated vehicle driver found a gold chain of around three sovereign lying amidst the garbage from a house in Besant Nagar, two weeks ago.
He quickly informed his supervisors and the jewellery was returned.
Cash and jewellery aside, some of their drivers had even saved lives when on duty, said Sathish.
“Sarath Kumar was on duty in Elliots beach when he heard the call for help from the parents of a child who was washed away from the beach. He swam to the child’s rescue and brought it ashore,” he said.