Luggage porter Coralín Medrano Pérez has proof he is an honest man. Hoy newspaper tells the story of the humble resident of La Caleta that makes a living helping travelers with their luggage at Las Americas International Airport. At around 3:30 am, while he was still on duty, Medrano found a manila envelope containing a passport and a US residency card in the name of Alejandro Castillo and US$2,000 in cash. Castillo is coincidentally the airport management employee in charge of the porters at the airport. "I was going nuts because even if it wasn’t so much money, the money had been entrusted to me for delivery to another person, and my documents were there, my passport and my residency," said Castillo after effusively thanking the porter for returning the envelope. When Medrano Perez found the envelope he immediately told his supervisor and the envelope was deposited at the Aerodom offices of Las Americas International. Castillo was later contacted. Medrano said that even if he was short of money to buy Three Wise Men gifts for his children, his parents taught him not to take what is not his. "Many people said I should have taken it considering it was a Three Wise Men gift, but I feel better having returned the money to its owner, and not having made use of what is not mine," Medrano Perez told the press. Aerodom reports there are 300 porters on duty at the airport, down from 1,400 that previously held the job. Upon taking over the management of the airport, Aerodom made a selection of the porters. These had to undergo backgrounds checks and take courses on human relations. (9 January 2001)
