Sometimes we are just in the right place at the right time and have an opportunity to be ‘good people’. Today’s good people all rather just fell into the role, but they are heroes in my book, for they didn’t turn a blind eye, or think about just walking away … they stayed, and they did something, in many cases saving a life. I always ask myself when I read or hear stories like this – what would I have done? Would I have the courage to jump in and help someone in trouble?
Pizza and a lost child at 3:00 a.m.?
Gabe Botello, who works for Villa Pizza, says he was in the middle of a delivery around 3 a.m. when he spotted a very young girl alone in the cold.
“I had people’s food, so I ran to the door and I gave them their food,” Botello told FOX 17. “I went back looking for her [and] I didn’t find her, so I got in my car, I drove around for a minute. I didn’t find her [so] I started pulling into parking lots.”
He eventually spotted the girl at a factory across the street. She was curled up between two cement blocks and wearing nothing but a t-shirt, diaper, and socks.
Botello put his sweatshirt on her and called 911.
“I had some water in my car, so she was drinking some water and I was just kind of like rubbing her back, letting her know she was okay and she started falling asleep,” said Botello. “She was so just like exhausted and cold.”
Police were able to reunite the 3-year-old with her mother, who was unaware her daughter was missing and thought she was sleeping.
It’s unclear how the toddler got out and for how long, but the Grand Rapids Police Department believes it was an accident.
Botello is just glad he was at the right place at the right time.
“Sometimes you want to turn a blind eye but, you just never know [who] you’re saving,” said Botello. “Anybody could have picked up that little girl. In the middle of Ionia and Wealthy is not the best part of Grand Rapids, there’s a lot of foot traffic over there, so, you know, I’m just glad she made it home. I’m glad she’s okay.”
Spiderman in Colorado Springs?
A man in Colorado Springs, Colorado, scaled three stories to save a neighbor suffering an asthma attack during an apartment building fire.
“We saw the fire going on and noticed a guy on the third floor was having a hard time breathing. He had an inhaler in his hand, couldn’t even stand up” said Dewey Parker. “Somebody else told the EMTs and they went up — but the door was locked.”
Parker says the neighbor was all alone in the apartment, and that when he saw someone in trouble, his adrenaline took over.
“He needed a hand. I just decided to scale up to the third floor off the balconies and unlocked the door,” said Parker. “I was able to reach. It was scary, though, because I figured, if my hand slipped, then they’re going to have to be helping me.”
Firefighters were able to get the blaze under control in minutes. Two apartments were affected, displacing eight people and five animals.
No one was harmed outside of the man that had an asthma attack, who, thanks to Parker, is going to be fine.
“I’m glad I was here and was able to help,” said Parker. “I just figured, if that was me, I would hope someone would have done the same thing.”
Out of the night came a hero
A mother and daughter in Minnesota said a hero recently came to their rescue during a snowstorm.
They only wish they got his name.
Jenny Zimbelman and her daughter Jazmine were recently trapped in their car after they hit a snow drift and the vehicle rolled on its side near East Grand Forks.
The two women said it was a very scary situation.
“She’s above me, still in her seatbelt. Hanging on so she doesn’t fall on me,” Zimbleman said.
“Another minute you don’t know what car could have come sliding in or anything like that.”
Out of nowhere, an unnamed “hero” climbed atop their car.
Jazmine said it was “extremely cold out,” but the stranger braved to elements to make sure she and her mom got out of the vehicle. After safely getting the women out of the vehicle, the man took off like a superhero before they could get his name.
“To have somebody not know me or my daughter, pull over on a very bad, bad day, climb on top of a car, open the door, get us out safe and then he just left. He is a hero,” Zimbelman said.
They hope to someday find the man who saved them.
He just saw a ‘flash of colour’
Francis Zuber was skiing at Mt. Baker Ski Area when a “flash of color” in the snow caught his attention. He quickly realized someone was buried under the snow.
“I only caught a glimpse of his board but it was enough to get my attention,” Zuber told Fox 13.
Ian Steger said he was snowboarding through the trees and the snow collapsed behind him, knocking him into the deep snow head-first.
Zuber’s GoPro footage shows him working frantically to clear enough snow for Steger to be able to breathe. Although Zuber seems calm in the video, he said he was “freaking out” internally.
“It was really frightening,” he said. “I mean, adrenaline is one heck of a drug.”
After about three minutes of digging, Zuber was able to clear enough snow for Steger to breathe.
“It was kind of just dumb luck that he came upon me. But he did find me and he did all the right things,” Steger said.
“I’ve told him how grateful I am that he was there and he had saved my life, how grateful my fiancé is.”
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