Honest Pinoy cabbie in Las Vegas gets $10K reward

By Bev Llorente, ABS-CBN North America Bureau

Dec. 27, 2013

LAS VEGAS – A Filipino taxi driver in Las Vegas received a $10,000 reward after turning in a bag filled with $300,000 cash to the proper authorities.

The poker player who left the bag of cash in the back seat of 55-year-old Gerardo Gamboa’s taxi made good on a promise this week to reward the honest cabbie.

This money could go a long way for Gamboa, who only lives in a cramped one-bedroom apartment, with his wife Elsa.

His car is also old — a 1993 Toyota Corolla. But he reasons — it’s still in good running condition.

Gamboa was also a victim of foreclosure during the U.S. housing bust of 2008.

He could have been $300,000 richer. But he chose to return the paper bag full of cash he found in the passenger seat of the taxi he was driving.

“I did it because Las Vegas taxi drivers are first to have bad publicity,” Gamboa said. “There’s a certain disrespect so, I wanted to build up the fact that Las Vegas cab drivers are not all that bad. Now when it comes to us, I wanted to build up the image that Filipinos have a good heart.”

He said he was never lured to take the stash of cash for himself. Instead, he gave it to the proper authorities. He let the authorities, and his cab company, know about the treasure he found.

“When you take what’s not yours, there are consequences,” he said.

His wife Elsa is still overwhelmed over people praising her husband’s act of kindness.

“I was really speechless,” she said. “Whenever someone asks me, because they saw him in the news, I would say, ‘That’s my husband, I’m proud of him’.”

The Filipino community is also jubilant, celebrating Gamboa’s honesty: honesty that is being recognized around the world because of the attention from global media.

“It’s an honorable act,” Filipino community leader Renato Avenido said.

Gamboa has been living in the U.S. for 29 years. He still dreams of once again owning his own home and sending his daughter to college to finish a degree in education.

-Additional reporting by Associated Press