The Dubai police has honored a Starbucks employee for being a "true example of honesty” after returning a customer’s bag containing checks and a large sum of cash.
Mae Anne Olmidillo, a Filipino working as a branch manager at the Starbucks outlet in Dubai Mall, was given praise by the Dubai police in the presence of her coworkers on August 29. She and barista Rosslyn Nini discovered the bag on April 18.
Olmidillo, who has been working in Dubai for six years, said "It is our protocol to check what’s inside the bag first in order to know whom to return it to, but we can only do it with a witness and on camera. I immediately alerted my district manager and our loss-prevention officer on what to do next.”
To their shock, the bag contained Dh195,000 in cash, two checks for Dh500,000 and Dh6,250 and some documents.
She added "We waited for the customer to come back to the cafe to collect it, but no one came. So I immediately called the police to report the matter and we turned it over to police officials at the Bur Dubai Police station so they could locate the owner.”
She narrated “Dubai Police officials told me that the value of contents of the bag was more than Dh200,000 because there were title deeds and other important documents. The bag, they said, belongs to a Russian broker. I stayed at the police station until the owner arrived. He thanked me for returning the bag to him. He said he was very tired and sleepy that day and was unaware of what had happened.”
Deputy director of Bur Dubai police station Colonel Rashid Mohammad Al Shehi labeled Starbucks employee Olmidillo as “a true example of honesty.” He said "I call on residents and citizens to follow Mae Anne’s example if they ever find themselves in a similar situation.”
