American tourist, 74, re-united with $10,000 he forgot in airport taxi

This is the heart-warming moment an elderly American tourist has nearly 10,000 dollars returned to him after he left it on the backseat of an airport taxi.

Jerry Hart, 74, caught the cab to the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday morning (December 4) but left his small white neck bag on the passenger seat. He was due to catch a flight back to the U.S. but had to cancel when he realised the large sum of money was missing - and spent the next few hours working with police to find it.

Meanwhile, shocked taxi driver Veeraphol Klamsiri, 57, was cleaning his car when he found the cash inside an envelope with ''9,800 US Dollars'' scrawled on it. Veeraphol reported the find to his local office, who liaised with police for him to drive back to the airport and hand over the money to a very relieved Jerry.

Jerry said: ''I'm very happy. I can't believe my luck. I didn't think I would see the money again. I've very grateful to the honesty of the taxi driver. I've been to Thailand on holiday a few times before and I've been thinking of moving here to retire. This has made up my mind for me. I'm definitely coming back here to live.''

Cabbie Veeraphol said he had picked up one other passenger after Jerry but the small bag had also been undiscovered by that person. He returned home and was cleaning his car when he noticed the bag under the front seats.

He said: ''I've never seen so much money in my life. I panicked, because I knew that the money belonged to the tourist I had taken to the airport earlier that day. I reported it to the station.''