When most people lose something in a bar they are, as they say, S.O.L. More often than not the bar staff wouldn’t spend the time helping you try to find what you lost and would chalk it up to a consequence of your drunken lack of responsibility.
But that just isn’t Jimmy Gilleece’s style.
Gilleece is the owner of Jimmy’s in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. When a woman came to his staff explaining that she had lost her wallet with her wedding ring in it, not only did he not judge her but he went above and beyond to help her find it.
While he was at it, he also just happened to completely change the life of a homeless teenager. He’s a pretty remarkable dude, to say the least.
But it all started when that woman lost her ring.
“She was frantic, really upset about it,” he said. “It just became my mission [to find the ring].”
Jimmy ended up scouring through three hours of footage on about six different security cameras before he discovered that the wallet was left outside of the bar on a bench. The footage showed a sly character sit on the bench and grab the wallet before walking off with it.
Jimmy ended up figuring out who the thief was and got him to confess to taking it. That thief was a homeless teenager who explained that he took the cash from the wallet and dumped it into a nearby ocean channel.
But Jimmy’s kindness and determination didn’t stop there.
“After I invested all that time, I’m gonna find the ring,” Jimmy said. “So I hired divers to come out the next day.”
I mean, who do you know that would do that?!?! Eventually, the two divers found the wallet with the ring still inside of it.
The ring was returned to the woman who decided not to press charges at Jimmy’s request.
“Jimmy went so far beyond what most of us would do for a stranger and yet even after solving the mystery he still felt the need to do more. Not for the woman who lost the wallet but for the thief who took it,” said CBS correspondent Steve Hartman.
Jimmy decided that he would help the homeless teen so that he would never have to commit another crime again.
“He was living in the woods, and this is when it was 30 degrees outside, and he hadn’t eaten in two days,” Jimmy said. “I could tell he wasn’t a criminal. He was just somebody who needed a little help.”
Jimmy learned that the 17-year-old named Rivers Prather became estranged from his mother and was trying to make it on his own. So, Jimmy took Rivers home with him.
Now the teen lives with Jimmy, his fiancé, and their kids, has two jobs, and a promising future.
“I couldn’t have been luckier. Most other people would have just gave the footage to police, and he chose to help me,” Rivers said. “He’s made me part of his family. I say thank you to him every day. I’d do anything for him.”
The internet and the world was taken back by the compassion and grace that Jimmy shows to those around him.
“WOW !! What a wonderful human being and Humanity person he is!” said one YouTuber. “May god bless you and your family for the good things you have done.”
Learn more about the beautiful heart this man possesses in the video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
