Edward Onoriode
Here's the inspiring story of a Nigerian police officer, Edward Onoriode who
returned a woman’s purse with ATM cards containing N200m and a necklace
worth N1.8 million.
Read the amazing story as shared by him on his Facebook wall below:
“I was at Ikeja shopping mall on duty where I recovered a missing purse at the
parking lot...
The purse contained; some cash both local and foreign currencies, recharge
cards worth about N2,000, nine ATM cards, complementary cards, valuable
documents, international passport, international and local drivers license,
national ID card, voters card and a gold necklace.
I took the missing purse to the security office where all lost but found items are
being kept for the owners to claim should in case the owners lodge a formal
complaint that their items at the mall went missing for possibly claim after
identification. At the security office where we went through all the items inside
the purse for record purpose, one of the security men told me point blank that if
he’s the one that recovered the missing purse, he’d remove the money, gold
necklace and recharge card before bringing the purse to the office for record
purpose .
I wasn’t disappointed with his misguided speech because that’s the normal
character of most Nigerians when they recover a missing item. Somehow, I
decide to trace the owner of the purse via her complimentary card and put a
call across to her. Open receiving the call, she screamed at the background
jubilating that her missing purse has been recovered. She drove straight to the
mall, tracing me through my mobile number I used in calling her.
When we met, she didn’t mind we were in public, she gave me a warm hug and
thanked me and prayed for me. I took her to the office where the purse was
kept. She checked her purse and discovered that nothing was missing. She was
astonished. She asked me again if I was the one that saw the item and I said
yes. She told me that she was already in the bank filling forms to block her
ATM cards. She said in those ATM cards, she have over N200m in there and
the necklace in the purse is valued at N1.8m.
She also said, I just removed a heavy burden from her neck because life would
have been miserable for her missing her international passport, international and
local drivers licence including other documents. She kept thanking me and
almost knelling down. She was awed and she told me that she least expected a
Police officer to recover a missing item containing cash and still return that
missing item intact without removing a dime out of it mostly in this harsh
economy. She kept staring at me like am a God.
To cut the long story short, she gave me some cash which I rejected. I told her
am doing my job and taking money from her for recovering her missing purse is
wrong on my part . I also made her to understand that we can become friends
and maybe in the future she can appreciate my nice gesture to her but I won’t
take anything from her for doing my job at the moment. She became speechless
and asked me which church am i attending? I smiled and told her “am
irreligious. In fact, am a freethinker” that’s the exact words I told her.
She stood their for minutes without knowing the next word to say. Anyway, we
are now friends and she just introduced me to her husband this morning on
phone. Her husband was so excited and has invited me and my family to join
them on a dinner in any of my off days. Is good to do the right thing not
because of any reward that comes with it but because its the right thing to do.
Good morning."
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