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    • Delaware man stranded in New Jersey gets help from unknown couple
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    Delaware man stranded in New Jersey gets help from unknown couple

    Pabio Posted on

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    Thomas Wheatcraft has survived many difficult situations given his 20 years in the Air Force, but he wasn’t sure he would survive that terrible Sunday night in 2003.

    While driving home to Odessa from his brother’s house in New Hampshire after Thanksgiving, his blue-gray Ford Windstar broke down on the Garden State Parkway near Bloomfield, New Jersey.

    He suddenly lost engine power and ended up in the parking lot of a home center, discovering his drive belt was completely broken after popping the hood of his car. Attendants at the center’s gas station told Wheatcraft they did not work on cars and no towing service was available.

    He hailed a cab to the nearest AutoZone and bought the last drive belt in stock, but it shredded as soon as a few guys in the parking lot helped him put it on. His pulley was faulty and he needed a new one, as well as another new drive belt.

    Another AutoZone had a drive belt in stock, but they didn’t sell the pulley they needed. With no more stores to try and nighttime looming, he would have to sleep at the rest stop and try again in the morning.

    “They had an all-night McDonald’s in the rest stop there, and I was going back and forth trying to stay warm all night because it was freezing cold,” he said. declared. “I thought I wasn’t going to live to see tomorrow. Either I was going to freeze to death or I was going to get hit in the head or robbed or something in a broken down car.

    Equipped the next morning with bus instructions from a McDonald’s employee, he climbed over a fence to get to the bus stop and checked out a handful of stores. He finally had all the parts he needed, but the repairs required two people. His brother was busy at work, so his only option was to ask a stranger.

    “I said to myself, ‘It’s hopeless.’ Who’s going to help a stranger these days?’ “, he said.

    More stories of random acts of kindness: These Millsboro women are offering companionship to lonely seniors, one letter at a time.

    A man was waiting for his wife to pick up coffee at McDonald’s. When Wheatcraft asked for help and the man agreed, he discovered the stranger was a mechanic. The couple from Worcester, Massachusetts, were traveling through New Jersey on their way to Florida for the winter.

    The husband quickly helped him put his drive belt on and the couple gave their car a spin to remedy the dead battery and check for new parts. When Wheatcraft insisted on paying the man for his help, the mechanic refused, replying, “I just like to help somebody every once in a while,” Wheatcraft recalled.

    Wheatcraft was “flabbergasted” by their generosity when they left.

    After a sleepless and cold night, he hadn’t thought to ask their names at the time and immediately regretted it, wanting to repay their kindness.

    Tell us your story: Did anyone make your day? Tell us about it

    Now living at Brookdale Senior Living in Dover, Wheatcraft still remembers the intense cold of that fall night and the mysterious couple. He never found out who they were, but he still thinks about them and wishes he would treat them to dinner on the way to Florida.

    “I never forgot that… I feel like this man and his wife saved my life because I thought I was going to freeze to death if I had to spend another night,” said he declared. “They were certainly good Samaritans in my book.”

    Do you have a tip or story idea? Contact Krys’tal Griffin at [email protected].

    Pabio
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