A tourist said Bermudians were the “nicest” people on earth yesterday after her missing purse was handed in to police with cash and other valuables still inside.

Jitana Stott, 74, from St Augustine Beach, Florida, was horrified when she found her purse, which held cash, bank cards and her passport, was missing as she and husband Hubert, 79, took a taxi tour around the island and stopped at the Crystal Caves in Hamilton Parish on only the second day of their vacation.

Taxi driver David Frost took the couple back to Hamilton, where Ms Stott thought her purse may have dropped out of her bag as she leant out of the cab to take a photograph of Town Crier Ed Christopher, but could not find it.

Ms Stott, on her first visit to the island, said Mr Frost told her: “Don’t worry. You are in another world — Bermuda. If someone finds it, they’ll return it.”

The cabby took the couple back to their hotel, the Hamilton Princess and Beach Club, and a security guard contacted police — who confirmed a mystery good Samaritan had handed in the purse at Hamilton police station with its contents untouched.

Ms Stott said: “Mr Frost went above and beyond. That any taxi driver should have done what he did — I have never had anybody do so much for me. He is by far one of the nicest men I think I have ever met.”

She added: “The security guard was very, very nice too.”

Ms Stott also thanked the unknown person who handed her purse in to police for taking the time and trouble to ensure her vacation was not ruined. She said: “God bless them. I have my purse back. There was not a thing taken.”

Mr Stott added: “We have been around a lot of places, we have travelled a lot. You guys easily — hands down — are the nicest people we have come across. In the United States, I don’t know that we would have got the purse back with everything in it.”

Mr Frost said: “It feels good that she found her purse and everything was returned. I told her ‘don’t worry, I’ll find it’.”