More Than Fine…

Unlikely Heros

// March 31st, 2010 // Uncategorized

I saw a lot of interesting things over the last week serving in New York City. That tends to happen when you are working in strange and often uncomfortable situations. There is a clear favorite though.  As I finished walking around the city with my friend Hannah, talking to homeless people and handing out sandwiches, I made my way to Penn Station to talk to D’jango. D’jango is a homeless man I had the opportunity to talk to 3 or 4 times. As we approached the area where D’jango usually hangs out, I saw 2 homeless men sleeping on the ground and a woman standing over one of them talking. The man responded and the woman moved to the other man to see if he was awake. Realizing he was asleep, she  proceeded to take his bag and start rifling through it. Unsure what to do and in shock that we were witnessing this woman robbing homeless people, we stood motionless. As the woman started walking away with the bag, we followed tentatively, still unsure of whether it was prudent to take action.

Then 3 young women, passing through Penn Station on their way to a Saturday night on the town, approached us and asked in southern accents, “Did she just rob him?” We confirmed what they had seen. “Is he alive?” asked the most timid of the three girls. “He is just sleeping,” I replied confidently, although passed out may have been more accurate. “What should we do?” they asked. “Well, I guess we have her outnumbered,” I responded with a still healthy amount of skepticism that 3 young women in heels would be much help if there was trouble.

The five of us, including 3 stereotypical southern sorority girls in heels and ready for a night on the town, proceeded to encircle the woman. One of the girls approached the woman, snatching the bag and saying curtly in her accent, “I believe that doesn’t belong to you.”

We returned victorious to the site of our victim and awoke him to notify him of what had happened. He indifferently returned to sleep. Oh well… The day was saved by this unlikely group of 5 and our 3 heroines disappeared into the city night.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed and leave a comment!