Las Vegas Taxi Driver Returns $300K To Owner

Gerardo Gamboa

Las Vegas gambler had left a brown bag with $300,000 cash in the back seat of a taxi.

By H. Nelson Goodson

December 26, 2013
(Updated)

Las Vegas, Nevada - On Monday, Gerardo Gamboa, 27, a driver who works for the Yellow Checker Star Taxi company (YCS) reported that he found a brown bag with $300,000 composed of $100 bills in 6 bundles of $50,000 each. Gamboa was picking up a passenger at the Bellago Casino when the doorman notice the bag and told Gamboa. 

At a near stop light, Gamboa opened the bag and discovered the money. He showed the other passenger the money and asked him to be a witness, so to confirm he didn't take any money. After dropping off the passenger he returned to the YCS' s taxi headquarters and turned it in.

The taxi company called police and it was learned that a well known 28-year-old gambler had just won the amount. The money was returned to the owner who stopped by to shake Gamboa's hand and later gave him a $10,000 reward.

Gamboa told media outlets, that he needs money, but that he wasn't going to keep money that wasn't his.

For Gamboa's good deed, the taxi company made him taxi Driver of the Year, awarded him with $1,000 and an expensive dinner for two, according to Joel Willden, the Yellow Checker Star field operations manager.