Honest Alix ...turns in thousands found on the street

Alix Michelle Archer De Silva received the Humming Bird Medal Silver of the Order of the Trinity for Loyal and Devoted Service to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the sphere of Honesty from His Excellency President George Maxwell Richards, on Independence Day at the President’s House. Alix, which means “Alice” in French and is pronounced ‘Aleex,’ a mother of two and brand manager by profession, is still in a state of shock at the nomination, which came as a result of her returning thousands of dollars found on the roadside around 9 pm on a Saturday in June of this year. But as she says in her very forthright manner, “It was not mine, I had to turn it in.” 

The very pleasant young woman was driving west along St Clair Avenue with her daughters and a friend when she saw what looked like bits of paper floating around in the air. “It looked like a mini-tornado and was swirling all around the car.  My first thought was that it was money but my daughter said it was cards.”  To clear it up, Alix stopped just after the British Gas building on the avenue then reversed onto the left side of the street alongside QRC. “No other cars stopped, so I opened my car door and discovered, while proving to my daughter, that it was indeed money, blue hundred dollar notes.” 

Alix was in shock. “I was breathless, to see so much money.” Her daughter’s friend, well-dressed in mini skirt and heels and would have presented an unusual figure stooping in the middle of the avenue, started scooping up money and throwing it into the car, while Alix picked up wads from the drain on the driver’s side of the car. As another car passed by, a whirlwind of money erupted again, at which time her daughter realised that there was a pouch in the middle of the avenue, and each time a car passed over the pouch the money would fly into the air.  Alix inched the car forward so that her daughter could open the front passenger door and pick up the pouch.  As they continued to scoop up the many hundred dollar bills from the road, passing cars started to slow down, at which time says Alix, “I hustled them into the car and drove off.”

Alix’s daughter opened the pouch and saw that there was more money inside, along with a driver’s licence, bank card, ID and other cards. Needless to say, the worst thoughts were going through their minds. Was it kidnap money or drug money. All Alix knew at this point was that she did not want to deal with the situation on her own, and got hold of her husband and older brother who told her to take it to the police, but she was too nervous to do so on her own. Her brother agreed that she should bring it to him and he would deal with the matter. “He had no choice, I was too nervous,” says Alix, who still shudders at the memory of that night. He handed it over to the officers at the St Clair Police Station who from the ID in the pouch contacted the owner.

Alix has never ever met the owner of the money and it was only from an article which appeared in Newsday that she learnt that the money belonged to a contractor who had placed the pouch on the top of his car while putting his children into the car, and had driven off without remembering to retrieve the pouch which contained thousands of dollars.  Again Alix does not know how much money there was in the pouch. Alix  hoped that the entire episode, if ignored, would fade into the background, and many calls from the police went unreturned until finally President’s House, to her great surprise, caught up with her and invited her to meet with the President’s secretary who spoke about, “My honesty and invited me to attend President’s House on Independence Day to receive an award.

I was sworn to secrecy about the invitation and only realised that it was a National Award for honesty when my uncle called me on Independence morning upbraiding me for not having told him.” In a state of complete shock she parked her car at the side of the road while he directed her to the page in the newspaper where the List of Awards had been published. Alix is still not sure how she feels about it. “My Uncle Glen (Davis) says I am supposed to put HBM after my name now, but I think that as usual he is being funny. I am happy about it and hope that there are other honest people around who would do the same thing.”