Lost cash returned to student

The term” finders keepers” did not have any significance to Wong Yeng Hui and Yeo Suk Lyn as they immediately surrendered a stack of RM600 they found lying on the canopy walk to the Security Department. The two Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) students who were returning from the Sunway Pyramid Mall to Sunway University (Sunway) found the money lying on the canopy walk at 2:13 pm on 4 April 2011. At 2:20pm the same day, they made a report at the Security Department and surrendered the money to Mr Gopal Kandasamy, Manager of the Security Department.

As it was harder to identify who the owner of the cash was, the security department inspected the CCTV’s installed at the canopy walk to identify the moment Wong and Yeo picked up the money. They then backtracked and found Ngu Mei Siang, a Sunway BSc (Hons) in Accounting and Finance walking through the canopy walk with two friends not realizing her money had fallen out of her bag.

Mr Tan Kheng Loon, Mr Gopal Kandasamy, Ms Elizabeth Lee, Lim Jew Jean, Ngu Mei Siang, Wong Yeng Hui and Yeo Suk Lyn.

Ngu realized that she had misplaced the money when she returned to Sunway University. She could not recall if she had misplaced it in Sunway Pyramid or Sunway University. Ngu also did not make a report regarding her lost money as she thought the person who had found the money would have taken it as it would be very hard to trace who had lost the money.

As the CCTV was only able to capture the image of the student, the Security Department still needed to find out the personal information of the student who misplaced her money. Hopeful that someone might recognize her; they placed a printed image of her from the CCTV and approached students who walked in to the Security Department regarding her identity.

Wong Yeng Hui and Yeo Suk Lyn explaining how they found the money to Lim Jew Jean, Ngu Mei Siang.

Lim Jew Jean, also a classmate of Ngu’s who walked in to the security department on 11 May 2011, recognized Ngu in the picture and told the security officer that Ngu is his course mate and that she had told him how she had misplaced her money 2 weeks ago.

Mr Gopal then contacted Ngu and told her to make an official report, hence a report was made on 12 May 2011 at 11:37pm. Ngu had not been told by the Security Department that her money has been safeguarded.

On 13 May 2011, Ngu Mei Siang and Lim Jew Jean were introduced to Wong Yeng Hui and Yeo Suk Lyn where her money was handed over to her while being witnessed by Ms Elizabeth Lee, Executive Director of Sunway Education Group, Mr Tan Kheng Loon, Director of Operations and Mr Gopal.

Wong said, “We did what we needed to do. That money didn’t belong to me and it was a huge amount, especially if the student was going to use as payment for the education courses”.

Elizabeth said, “As Accountants in the making, it was amazing to see honest students who knew the value of money. This trait should always be reflected when you go out to work in the real world”.

The incident did not only showcase the honesty of Sunway students but also the dedication of the Security Department in identifying the person who had lost the money. This also highlights the safety features of the Canopy walk that connected Sunway University to Sunway Pyramid mall that was built last year.