Train station employee in central Vietnam returns $2,200 left behind by passenger

At around 2:00 pm on Sunday afternoon, after passenger train SE3 had departed Quang Ngai Station, Bui Thi Lan discovered a dark blue backpack with an English training center’s logo left behind in the waiting area.

Lan carefully brought the backpack into the station office for safekeeping and documented the incident.

Upon inspection, station staff found inside the bag 22 $100 bills, five children’s magazines, three books, clothing items, and other belongings.

Soon after, the conductor of train SE3 contacted Quang Ngai Station to report a passenger had forgotten a bag in the waiting area and requested assistance in locating it. 

The station confirmed that a matching backpack had just been found and was being kept securely.

Later that same day, Quang Ngai Station returned the lost belongings to the passenger’s family. 

The passenger was identified as N.T.T.N., who had traveled in carriage 7 on train SE3 on Sunday afternoon.

According to the Saigon Railway Transport Joint Stock Company, the railway sector returns lost property to some 10 passengers each month.

In a similar incident in May, a passenger traveling on train SE8 on the Saigon-Hanoi route left a wallet at Dieu Tri Station in south-central Binh Dinh Province, which contained VND30 million ($1,152) and was later returned.

Another passenger on train SNT2 on the Saigon–Nha Trang route left behind a bag with over VND19 million ($729.8) and important documents, which was also successfully returned.

The railway sector encourages passengers to promptly contact station staff or train operators if they lose or forget belongings while using railway services.