THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was last Wednesday that Sony Mathew, an IT technician working in Qatar came home with his wife and 8-month-old baby Neha Sony. The family was grieving the death of Sony’s father-in-law and was travelling to Mavelikkara to pay the final respects. It was only once they reached home that they found out that the gold chain worn by Neha was missing.
“The gold chain held so much of emotion for us. It was gifted by my father-in-law to Neha during her baptism. We made Neha wear the chain only because it was his gift and as an ode to him. We were already trying to grapple with his loss and the loss of the chain gifted by him was not something we could handle,” recalls Sony.
On Tuesday morning, Sony received the chain, all thanks to a taxi driver turning Good Samaritan. The family had travelled to Mavelikkara, their native place in an airport taxi after landing at the Thiruvananthapuram Airport.
Mansoor P, the taxi driver, had ferried the family and was alerted by the family after they came to know of the loss. “I was just back from taking another passenger who arrived from the Maldives. When I came to know of this, I called the duty police in the airport aid post and we checked the vehicle,” recalls 53-year-old Mansoor. The chain was found after they removed the lock of the back seat and there, stuck on the seat was the gold chain.
The chain was handed over to an officer at Valiyathura police station who is a relative of the family. It is not the first time that such an incident has happened, says Mansoor. “Mostly the passengers forget their purses or phones and we give them to the airport manager,” says Mansoor who has been working as a taxi driver for the past 30 years. Mansoor says that he was just doing his duty. “I have been working for years here. I was just doing what was expected of me,” says Mansoor.