At a small ceremony held at Phuket Provincial Hall at 6pm yesterday, Governor Phakaphong handed over the award, and the reward, to Yaowaphon Raksa, store manager of a 7-Eleven near Phuket Bus Station off Phang Nga Rd in Phuket Town.
Present for the occasion was Gomad Pankerd, from the Phuket office of the Ministry of Culture, and Li Ruzong, from the Chinese consular office in Phuket, and a handful of officials in dress uniform.
On May 30, sometime between midday and 1pm, three Chinese female tourists entered the store, and spent quite a long time browsing the shelves and making their purchases, it was explained at the ceremony.
After the tourists left, a Thai customer approached the cashier and pointed out that a wallet had been left behind on the counter.
MsYaowaporn took the wallet for safekeeping and checked CCTV footage and saw it was left behind by one of the Chinese women.
At about 2:20pm, the Chinese woman returned to the store with a Thai tour guide, and had the wallet returned.
There was no explanation of why such action was deemed worthy of such high recognition.
According to the report of the award-giving ceremony by the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department, the wallet contained only B120 in cash – but also an undisclosed amount of Chinese yuan banknotes.
Mr Gomad praised Ms Yaowaphon. “This is good for tourism in Phuket. I hope this sets a good example for honesty among Phuket people,” he said.
Li Ruzong from the Phuket Chinese Consular office also praised Ms Yaowaporn, and offered a gift of appreciation, the PR Dept report noted.