While we were stuck with a guy with no license photo who kept running red lights over the weekend, a pair of Swiss tourists managed to find a generous cab driver who made sure they could return to their homeland. Daniel Hasler and Valeria Zapata arrived at a Brooklyn B&B from JFK on Wednesday night when they realized they had left a bag containing $700 in cash, a $500 camera, an iPhone, an iPod, credit cards and Zapata's Swiss residency card in the cab. Luckily for them, driver Kashmir Singh had no desire to disguise himself as a woman and move to Switzerland.
After trying to chase after Singh, the couple headed to a late dinner where they presumably fretted about how Zapata, who is Chilean, would return to Switzerland. Hasler said, "Without the residency card, my wife would have had a big problem getting back into Switzerland. We had already called the Swiss Consulate." But Singh noticed the bag and quickly zipped back to the B&B and left it with the owner, who returned it when Hasler and Zapata got back.
And as no good deed goes unpunished, Marty Markowitz congratulated Singh by saying, "Cabbie Kashmir Singh may 'hail' from Queens, but he showed real Brooklyn attitude, and for his honesty and thoughtfulness, I say, 'Bravo!'" Zapata was also thankful, saying, "I was so relieved. I've lost things in Chile. I've lost things in Spain. And they've never turned up. This really showed me what New York was all about." That's the reaction Singh was looking for. He said, "I'm a typical New York guy, and these people were tourists. I want them to think well of New York."
