Las Vegas taxi driver finds - and hands in - $300,000 left on his backseat

Gerardo Gamboa who handed in $300,000 found in the back of his taxi

A Las Vegas taxi driver proved it is the season of goodwill - after he handed in $300,000 left in the back of his cab.

Gerardo Gamboa was named Driver of the Year by his company Yellow Checker Star and was rewarded for his honesty with $1,000 and a dinner for two at an exclusive restaurant.

Gamboa, who has been a taxi driver for 13 years, thought a passenger had left a bag of chocolates on the back seat after being driven from the Cosmopolitan to the Palms Place Tower on Monday.

When he picked up his next passenger from the Bellagio, a doorman placed the bag on the passenger seat, Gamboa told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

But after stopping at a traffic light, Gamboa discovered that the brown paper package contained thousands of dollars in cash.

Rather than adhering to the motto "finders keepers", the cabbie turned in the money, which was returned to an unidentified poker player.

Gamboa told the Las Vegas Sun: "I told my passenger, 'You are my witness on this' and then I immediately called my dispatcher."

The cabbie took the six bundles of $100 bills to the company's main office, where Las Vegas police and casino officials linked it to the poker player.

It took several hours to verify the identity of the owner and return the money. He took Gamboa's details, but didn't immediately leave a reward.

"If he doesn't give me anything, that's OK," Gamboa told the Las Vegas Sun. "I'm not waiting for any kind of return. I just wanted to do the right thing, and I appreciate what the company did for me."