Cop Pays For Elderly Widow’s Gas & Inspires Outpouring Of Help From Strangers.
Cops are trained to pay close attention to what’s happening around them at all times, and many feel it’s their duty to step in and lend a helping hand when they see a need — even if it’s not a life or death situation.
Officer Todd Bing, a 17-year veteran of the St. Clair Shores Michigan Police Department, just happened to be at the right place at the right time recently, and now his act of kindness and compassion has inspired a wave of generosity from strangers all over the world. It all started when Todd was standing in line at the Citgo gas station in St. Clair Shores.
As the officer waited to check out, he noticed that the elderly woman in front of him was having a difficult time with her mobility. At 75, Dolores Marotta had taken the car her daughter lent her to the gas station, hoping to get just enough gas to take her to her doctor’s appointment.
Like many senior citizens, Dolores lives off of Social Security, which doesn’t always stretch as far as she needs. On this day, Dolores had scrounged up two crumpled dollar bills and a handful of change.
Seth Kasyouhanan was working the cash register that day. Seth’s family has owned the gas station for the past 20 years, and he had seen Dolores in his store before. He waited patiently as the old woman counted out the money and asked for $3 of gas on pump number three.
Apologizing, she told Seth she only had a few dollars left over until her next check.
As Dolores headed outside, Todd stepped out of line to lend her a helping hand.
“She was so slow-moving that I was like ‘I’m going to go pump this gas for her,’” the cop explained. He followed her to her car and told her to sit inside while he pumped her gas for her. What she didn’t realize is that back in the store, he had taken a $20 out of his own wallet and added it to her $3.
As Todd pumped the gas, he chatted with Dolores and learned that she’d been struggling to make ends meet since losing her husband three years ago. As they talked, Dolores noticed that the officer seemed to be pumping a lot more than three dollars worth of gas into her tank!
“It seemed like he was putting in a lot of gas because I only told him $3,” Dolores said. From inside the shop, Seth had been watching the exchange in awe. He was struck by how selfless the officer was, and how willing he had been to shell out his own hard-earned dollars to help out a fellow citizen in need.
Seth snapped a picture and uploaded it to his Facebook account in hopes that it would cheer others up and spread love and kindness in the world. “I just kind of wanted to show something a little more positive,” Seth said.
After the post went viral, he started getting messages from people all over. They all wanted to help Dolores in their own way, and many offered to send the widow some cash to ease her everyday life just a bit.
“I didn’t think that everyone ought to come in and give me cash, so I thought the only way this would work would be to make a GoFundMe account,” Seth said. He started a crowdfunding campaign that very day, with a modest goal of raising $5,000 for Dolores.
Instead, the GoFundMe page began to skyrocket, quickly bringing in over $20,000 in just a few days!
Seth says he’s incredibly happy that sharing Officer Todd’s moment of kindness ended up inspiring so many others to lend a helping hand.
Meanwhile, the cop wants no accolades for his action at the gas station that day; he simply says it’s the sort of thing cops do on the job every single day. He explained that the interaction also “had nothing to do with being a police officer” because “it was just a human thing.”
As for Dolores? She believes Todd was nothing short of heaven-sent. “God must have sent him there for me,” she said.
“I appreciate everything, and I want people to know how really grateful I am for the help,” she said. “When my husband and I were younger, we would help people as much as we could. So if you see somebody or know somebody who is having a hard time, help if you are able to do it.”
What a beautiful way to pay it forward. This is what happens when we pay attention and answer the call of duty we all have for our fellow humans. Selflessly helping others with no thought of what you get out of it personally is not just an act of kindness, it’s a true act of humanity.
Please share this story to thank Officer Todd and Seth for helping out Dolores!