–GPF rewards police woman who returned $1M to owner

THE Guyana Police Force (GPF), on Thursday, recognised woman police constable, Tatyanna Aaliyah Blair-Da Silva, for her integrity and honesty after she recently returned a black ‘laptop bag’ belonging to an overseas-based Guyanese, Sheik Ali.

The bag, according to Ali, contained some US$3,000 (approximately G$600,000), an iPhone, an identification card and a passport.

Further, he said that upon receiving the bag containing his money, he offered a reward to the 22-year-old, which she graciously declined, saying she was not brought up that way.

Commissioner of Police (ag), Nigel Hoppie, said it was her commitment to serving the people of Guyana that influenced the GPF to recognise her exemplary service. The police force and Queens Way Security Company awarded her $200,000.

During an interview with the Guyana Chronicle at Divisional Headquarters on Wednesday, the soft-spoken Blair-Da Silva, said she had left her Fyrish home on Friday just after 21:00 hours to go to the village shop to purchase a pack of ‘Ramen.’

“About 15 to 20 feet from the Fyrish bus shed, I observed a black computer bag. I opened it and saw a quantity of United States and Guyana currency. I looked for a form of identification. After waiting for a while for the owner to return to the area and recover the items, I took a photograph of the identification card and posted it to my Facebook page, along with my cellphone number.

“About an hour later, the man’s son called, saying it was his father’s. The owner of the bag then contacted me before reaching me at the bus shed. He checked the bag and was surprised and shocked, as he did not believe that members of the Guyana Police Force had such integrity,” the 22-year-old cop related.

According to Blair-Da Silva, it was not the first time she found large sums of money. On another occasion, she had sent a photograph of the person’s identification card to “BIG SMITH,” who posted it to his page. She had later learnt that the money she found was for the owner’s daughter’s surgery.

She said: “I grew up in a single-parent home with my mother and two siblings. My mother would always tell us, na want wa you mattie get, wuk fo you own.”

The married mother of one, who is also a former national athlete, has lived up to her mother’s expectations and teachings.