“Being brave meant that though you might be frightened, you would face the greatest danger if you knew it was the right thing to do.” -Anne Holm.
A few days before Christmas, the firefighters were busy dropping off a patient at the hospital when suddenly their fire truck was stolen.
It’s not something that you would see every day.
Someone bold enough to steal a fire truck is not the usual thing that you would witness, even in the busiest streets of California.
It was 1:40 a.m., and the firefighters dropped off a patient at the UC-Irvine Medical Center in Orange County.
“As they were dropping off a patient at the hospital the truck was stolen,” Capt. Greg Barta said in his interview with Fox 11.
The suspect who stole the fire truck traveled through many locations even though a pursuit was being held. He even went to Irvine and Fountain Valley.
Police tried their best to stop the suspect, but the story takes an unexpected turn as a homeless man bravely stood in the street to stop the stolen fire truck.
Can you imagine someone deciding to risk his life just to save people and even save the suspect?
The chances of this homeless man being run over were high, but he still did what he could to talk to the suspect.
The suspect backed the fire truck and tried many times to maneuver around the brave homeless man, but he was unsuccessful.
The homeless man talked to the suspect. He told him to surrender peacefully and explained that he wanted the pursuit to end peacefully.
He told the suspect that he didn’t want him getting hurt.
Finally, the suspect must have seen the sincerity of the homeless man that he decided to open the door and calmly go out and surrender.
At 3 a.m., after more than an hour of pursuit from the police, the suspect surrendered.
USA Today was able to talk to one bystander, Mitch Fecler, who witnessed the breathtaking incident.
“It was just crazy how the homeless guy walked up in front of the firetruck and started talking to him through the windshield,” said Fecler.
It was indeed something that you would expect from a movie, but not in real life.
The homeless man was beyond brave – he was selfless, and his concern for his community, even for the suspect, was admirable.
According to Fox 11, the homeless man is Richard Lynn.
It took Lynn 20 minutes before he could convince the suspect to surrender.
He remained calm because he wanted to talk sense to the person doing this.
Lynn wanted the man to realize what he was doing was wrong. If he surrenders peacefully, the whole ordeal could end without anyone getting hurt.
It doesn’t have to end tragically because we all have a choice, Lynn reminded the suspect to choose wisely, and he did.
According to the police report, the suspect never reached a speed of 40 miles, and even though it took a long time to stop him, no one was hurt.
The truck only had minor damages, and after a thorough inspection, it was driven back to the fire station.
The police arrested the suspect peacefully.
We all have choices.
Some people choose to do bad things, while some choose to be heroes. But at the end of the day, we all have the choice to do the right thing.
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