Bus driver returns lost wallet with $400 rent money inside

A Calgary man lost a wallet containing much of his rent money for the month but thanks to the kindness of his bus driver, it was returned before he even realized it was missing.

Jacon Tarcon, 23, works construction. And like everyone else, he's been feeling the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Tuesday, Tarcon was taking the bus home when his wallet containing $400 of his rent money for the month slipped out of his pocket without his noticing.

Later, when getting out of the shower, he noticed a message on his phone.

"[I] had a Facebook message from a transit supervisor asking if I had lost my wallet I thought it was a scamhonestly, because I looked at the message and it had no profile picture, and I almost deleted it."

Tarcon said he has no idea how the wallet fell out.

"I was pretty stressed because on top of the cash, I had, like, all my identity cards, social insurance number and all that stuff."

Luckily, he didn't delete the message. The wallet was returned to him in time to make his first rent payment of 2021.

Benti Khaira has been driving buses for 15 years. She was going through her usual routine of walking through the bus at the end of her route to check for trash left behind, when she saw the wallet.

"I just walked through the bus and on the corner I saw the wallet sitting. I picked it up and there was a large amount of money," she said.

She contacted transit control, who reached out to supervisor Baljinder Dhaliwal.

Dhaliwal tracked down Tarcon, and had reunited him with his wallet by the end of the day.

"I'm so grateful and appreciative that he got it back the way he left it," Khaira said.

Tarcon says he's so thankful Khaira returned the wallet, and said he hopes the good deed brings her luck for the new year.

"The fact that people are still willing to sacrifice their own time, sacrifice things that could have benefited them, to go out of their way and give back to the community and stuffit's just amazing to hear, honestly," he said.