Honest third sergeant commended by SAF for returning lost wallet with $5.6k cash

Photo: The Singapore Army/Facebook
Photo: The Singapore Army/Facebook

On Wednesday, the Singapore Army took to its Facebook page to commend one of their soldiers for his honest deed. What happened was this: Nearing midnight on March 28, a 35-year-old woman got a call from a man who had jumped in the Grab car she alighted at Jurong West earlier that day. As it happened, she had just realized that she left behind her wallet containing S$5,600 in cash in the vehicle.

According to The Straits Times, the man assured her that her belongings were safe and soon returned them to her. In an effort to thank the kind man, the woman’s husband expressed his gratitude in a now-removed post on Facebook, and the man was soon identified as Third Sergeant (3SG) Liaw Yi Kang.

“Life is already a struggle and super hectic in Singapore and yet there is still a honest and kind soul living among us,” the husband wrote.

The Singapore Army noted that 3SG Liaw returned the purse untouched, and that “this action of his drew praises online”.

“The Singapore Army would also like to commend 3SG (NS) Liaw for his act of honesty and thereby exemplifying the core value of ethics,” the post added.

ST explained that the woman had boarded the Grab vehicle with her mother at Raffles Hospital that afternoon, and that was when her mother gave her the cash meant for her pilgrimage to Mecca in June. It was only around 9pm that she discovered her money was missing, and by then 3SG Liaw had given her several missed calls to a number he found on a receipt in the wallet.

Around midnight, he finally got in touch with the couple, who offered him S$100 as a gesture of appreciation when they met up the next day, but he politely declined. So the pair donated about S$1,000 to a mosque and several charities in an effort to pay it forward.



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