Village Journals
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
What a wonderful man!
MSNBC.com
Diamonds can?t tempt honest L.A. cabbie
Afghan immigrant returns $350,000 in rocks to forgetful passenger
The Associated Press
Nov. 18, 2005
LOS ANGELES - Haider Sediqi didn?t give much thought to the small, zippered pouch that a passenger forgot in his taxicab when he got out at Los Angeles International Airport.
Sediqi stashed the brown bag in the front, where it remained as he took his Checker cab to the car wash, drove a passenger to Long Beach and met a fellow cabbie for lunch Wednesday.
As he walked off to the restroom, Sediqi asked his friend to check the bag for identification.
?Oh, God,? Sediqi, 40, recalled his friend saying as he stared into the bag. ?Look at those things.?
Inside, packed in clear plastic cases were diamonds ? about 100 of them, cut and polished and worth, it turned out, $350,000. Also inside was a cell phone bill.
Sediqi, a father of two with a pregnant wife, called the number, trying to sound nonchalant.
?Um, did you leave anything?? the Afghan immigrant asked the man who answered, according to the Los Angeles Times.
?Oh, my God,? the voice on the phone responded, according to a story in Friday?s newspaper.
Sediqi arranged to meet the man, identified as Eric Austein, who had not yet departed LAX for New York, at the airport police station.
Police inventoried the diamonds and confirmed Austein?s identity. Austein calmly took possession of the gems, hugged Sediqi and promised him a reward.
Sediqi said keeping the loot never entered his mind, even though his wife loves diamonds and he dreams of opening a restaurant.
?God is up there,? he said Thursday as he waited outside an auto shop, where his cab was having its brakes fixed. ?He always watches.?
www.msnbc.msn.com
Diamonds can?t tempt honest L.A. cabbie
Afghan immigrant returns $350,000 in rocks to forgetful passenger
The Associated Press
Nov. 18, 2005
LOS ANGELES - Haider Sediqi didn?t give much thought to the small, zippered pouch that a passenger forgot in his taxicab when he got out at Los Angeles International Airport.
Sediqi stashed the brown bag in the front, where it remained as he took his Checker cab to the car wash, drove a passenger to Long Beach and met a fellow cabbie for lunch Wednesday.
As he walked off to the restroom, Sediqi asked his friend to check the bag for identification.
?Oh, God,? Sediqi, 40, recalled his friend saying as he stared into the bag. ?Look at those things.?
Inside, packed in clear plastic cases were diamonds ? about 100 of them, cut and polished and worth, it turned out, $350,000. Also inside was a cell phone bill.
Sediqi, a father of two with a pregnant wife, called the number, trying to sound nonchalant.
?Um, did you leave anything?? the Afghan immigrant asked the man who answered, according to the Los Angeles Times.
?Oh, my God,? the voice on the phone responded, according to a story in Friday?s newspaper.
Sediqi arranged to meet the man, identified as Eric Austein, who had not yet departed LAX for New York, at the airport police station.
Police inventoried the diamonds and confirmed Austein?s identity. Austein calmly took possession of the gems, hugged Sediqi and promised him a reward.
Sediqi said keeping the loot never entered his mind, even though his wife loves diamonds and he dreams of opening a restaurant.
?God is up there,? he said Thursday as he waited outside an auto shop, where his cab was having its brakes fixed. ?He always watches.?
www.msnbc.msn.com
Comments on this journal
God bless this Afghan since he is a rare breed amongst Afghans, as well as the human race.
Salam,
Rudy
November 30, 2005
LOS ANGELES -- Two weeks ago, Haider Sediqi reunited a passenger with $350,000 in diamonds that the man had left in his taxicab.
Now, Sediqi's act of honesty has turned to gold.
The New York jeweler who forgot the bag of diamonds sent Sediqi a $10,000 check and a diamond bracelet. Sediqi said the man's thank-you note meant just as much to him.
"The guy, he said I changed his life," Sediqi said. "That's very important."
Eric Austein left the diamonds in Sediqi's cab Nov. 16 when he got out at Los Angeles International Airport. Sediqi tracked him down through a cell phone bill he found inside the bag.
Austein promised him a reward, but Sediqi said he didn't think much about it -- until it arrived a few days ago.
Sediqi, 40, said he considered using the money to pay off credit card debt but decided to save it to help pay for his children's schooling. He gave the bracelet to his wife, Nasima.