The good guys thread

[kuhio98]

Antioch Police say Target employee helped find abducted girl

ANTIOCH, Calif. — Antioch Police are praising a Target Store employee in Pittsburg for helping bring a child's kidnapping ordeal to an end.

“When I first spotted him in the store, I thought he was going to shoplift,” said 22-year-old Roxanna Ramirez.

Ramirez had no way of knowing the stranger she was watching, 43-year-old David Douglas, would later become the prime suspect in the armed abduction of a seven year old girl in Antioch.

What Ramirez noticed, was a shopper behaving suspiciously.

“He had a backpack, and he was picking things up and putting them down in the men's department,” recalled Ramirez.

As a loss prevention specialist, it's her job to monitor unusual behavior, so she followed Douglas for a time, even asking him is he needed help. He said no.

Then, she went to her office and watched him on surveillance cameras.

“He was fidgeting around, acting really weird, abnormal. I don't know, it just didn't make me feel comfortable,” Ramirez elaborated.

After he left the store, she continued to watch him remotely as he went to his car, and rifled through his backpack, occasionally leaving the car to pace and smoke, then returning.

“At one point, I saw him grab his steering wheel and start to shake it, and that was really off to me,” Ramirez noted. “That's when I really know something was wrong with him.”

She wrote his license plate number in the little notebook she always carries, and didn't think about it again until that night, when her girlfriend told her a child had been abducted.

“She read the description of the car, and I was like, 'hold on', that sounds like somebody I saw earlier at my job! It fits the same description,” said Ramirez. “I was like 'It's kinda weird' and she said, ‘you should call.’”

Ramirez called the plate in, and it led to Douglas, which led to the Antioch Marina, where police have had encounters with him before. He was apprehended, and the girl reunited with her family, four hours after she was taken.

Police came to Ramirez's door about midnight to tell her that her tip had made the difference.

“They said I helped crack the case, and my heart just dropped, like, really? I couldn't believe it” said a still incredulous Ramirez.

“She is a true hero,” acting police Capt. Tammany Brooks told KTVU. “We at the Antioch Police Department applaud people like Roxanna Ramirez who are willing to step forward to make our community a safer place. It's a collaborative effort.”

Ramirez said she is simply glad she could play a part in bringing the young victim to safety.

“I'm happy that she's home, and gets to spend the rest of this time with her family because not all kidnappings end like this. It feels really good.”

And she hopes her experience encourages everyone to listen to their gut instincts. In Roxanna's words, when something doesn't feel right, “Run with it.”

[kuhio98]

An Angelic Superhero
He wasn't really a superhero; he just dressed like one. But then an opportunity to be an angel presented itself...
By Troy Marcum, Huntington, West Virginia


Every kid dreams about growing up to be a superhero, but not many expect that dream to come true. My twin brother, Travis, couldn’t believe it when I told him mine had. “What do you mean you’re going to be Captain America for real?” he asked.

Superheroes had been important to me since I was a little kid. Travis and I really needed heroes back then. We had a difficult childhood, bouncing around from one tough situation to another. When we didn’t think things could get any worse, they did.

The one thing Travis and I could rely on was our comic books. When you’re a small boy, and afraid, it’s a great comfort to imagine you’re big and strong, rescuing other children from danger.

One night, when we were about eight, Travis and I huddled together in bed wondering if we’d always be surrounded by people stronger than us. “We’ll find a way out of this mess,” I whispered to him. “Someday we’ll overcome, like all of our heroes. You’ll see!”

With each other–and God–to lean on, that’s exactly what we did. Travis worked for the would-be governor of Washington State. I’d spent years as a professional wrestler and been awarded the Armed Forces Service Medal in the Navy for my work as a surgical technician.

Now I’d been offered an even more important job.

“I’m going to be Captain America,” I repeated to Travis. I’d gotten a call from a man named John Buckland, an Iraq War vet and a former firefighter. He ran a group called Heroes 4 Higher. They dressed up as superheroes to teach kids how to be a hero in their own right.

John had seen a picture of me from my wrestling days. I competed dressed as Cap–red, white and blue uniform, star on my shield. It was a big hit with the crowd, but it had special meaning for me.

In striving to become a hero like him as a boy, I didn’t feel like a victim. Maybe in this program I could share that feeling with other children. “If anyone can do it, you can,” my brother said.

I started “work” right away, visiting elementary schools, hospitals and community centers. John dressed as Batman, his wife was Batgirl.

There was nothing better than talking to kids one-on-one, having them look at me and see a hero. Courtney from Milton Elementary wanted us to visit her school on her birthday to teach everyone to be nice to each other.

Abby met us at an anti-bullying rally at the mall where she appeared in a tiara. Cameron, a boy losing his fight against cancer, said we gave him courage.

“You really have become one of the heroes from our comic books,” Travis said. Well, not really, I thought as I suited up for an appearance for local kids at the American Legion last fall. I wasn’t capturing bad guys or saving lives. The kids just thought I did those things because of my costume.

Our hosts at the American Legion introduced us, and John and I–as Batman and Captain America–took the stage. The kids clapped and then quieted down.

I spoke about some of the challenges they might face at school and gave some tips about standing up to peer pressure. The kids were taking it all in. John suddenly stepped forward and pointed out the window to a house across the street. “That place is on fire!”

Brown smoke poured out of the windows, turning black. The ex-firefighter didn’t waste a minute. “Call 911,” he told the room, and both of us ran across the street, followed by some of the bikers who were there to give an anti-drug presentation. One of them, Tank, helped John to kick in the front door.

“Throw a rock through the window,” John then ordered me. “We need to get some of that smoke out!” John went inside the house, disappearing into the thick smoke. “Anyone home?” he shouted. No answer, thank goodness.

Across the street the kids shouted, “Go, Batman, go! You can do it, Captain America! You can do it!”

John emerged from the blackness with something in his arms–something furry. It was a gray and black cat. “He needs air,” I said.

Firefighters hosed down the house. John laid the cat on the grass, and we exchanged a desperate look. Neither of us had ever performed CPR on a cat before, but we had to try!

“Captain America and Batman will save him!” one of the kids shouted. John breathed air into the cat’s mouth. The cat twitched. His eyes sprang open. He hissed angrily. Success! By the time the family returned home, their pet was good as new.

EMTs treated John for smoke inhalation, while the kids stared at us, awestruck. “You saved him!” they said. “Batman and Captain America saved the cat!”

John turned to me. “Guess this really was a job for Batman and Captain America!” he said. My brother agreed when I told him all about it. “Superheroes giving a cat CPR,” he said. “That’s like a scene from a comic book!”

John and I received many accolades for our actions that day. At the West Virginia Pumpkin Festival Parade we were reunited with Bob the Cat and family. The fire damage wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been, and they were back in their home already.

Now people were not only calling us heroes–they were calling us angels. All I knew was, for one day God had truly granted my adventurous boyhood wish.

[kuhio98]

Good Samaritan helps jump start cars for free -- Illinois, USA

The cold can be pretty hard on our cars, but one local man volunteered his time helping give people a jump.

4th Avenue Auto Sales in Moline has been flooded with calls.

“They’ve been ringing off the hook, probably about every five minutes,” said employee Chris Sunken.

However, the calls aren’t for their business, but for a certain employee. Brad McCorckle, who works at 4th Avenue, decided to post on Facebook he would help out whoever needed a jump start for their car.

“(I thought) ‘We should put something on Facebook and go out and see who needs some help,’ so that’s what we did,” said McCorckle.

The post blew up on Facebook and so did the calls. On Monday, January 6, 2013, McCorckle started his day at 10:00 a.m., driving to several homes to offer his help for free.

“That’s what struck me right there, that he was willing to do that to give back to the community. So, I think it’s a great thing he’s doing especially in this weather,” said Robin Carden, a nurse who was stranded at home and needed to get to her patients.

McCorckle says it’s just the right thing to do.

“I was always taught by my parents to help people,” said McCorckle.

He’s bringing sunshine to people on a very cold day.

“There’s not many out there willing to do that anymore,” said Carden.

[kuhio98]

Portland man who wrestled bank robber: 'I'm not going to just stand around and watch'

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - Portland police officers were honored Thursday for their heroic efforts on the job, but the police bureau also left room for a brave civilian.

Scott Adams received the Portland Police Civilian Medal for Heroism.

In August, Adams was working construction at Portland Community College when he saw a man run through the job site.

He heard people shouting that the man had just robbed a bank, so Adams chased after him.

Police said the suspect, Frazer Piccolo, eventually confronted Adams, threatened him and even tried to punch him.

But Adams managed to dodge the punch and then landed a punch of his own on Piccolo, bringing him down. Adams then held Piccolo down until officers arrived.

"They were saying it was a great job (and) that if I hadn't taken action, there's a chance he might have gotten away," Adams said. "I'm a hard-working individual and for people to try and take something that isn't theirs, I'm not going to just stand around and watch it."

A police sergeant joked at the ceremony that Adams should stop by the recruitment table on his way out.

[kuhio98]

~~ Cats pay it forward ~~

During a stroll, my son pointed out a puff of black & white fur trying to keep up beside us in a weed infested field, I stopped him from heading over to it, "It probably belongs to one of these houses." Like most good teenagers he didn't listen. When he came back with the bundle his eyes were moist & his voice trembled. "I think someone's poked his eyes out." The barely palm size matt was covered in fly eggs, there were swollen red mounds where eyes should have been, it smelled like sickness. At home, a warm, wet wash cloth was the best I could do for a mother's cleaning, until Big Thor came over. Thor was a massive cat, we had found him in the snow by our apartment dumpster years before where his mother & siblings had frozen to death. He had bitten through my husband's leather gloves (winning his affection immediately). Now he came, pawed at the kitten softly. At first I was afraid how he might react to this new invader. With one paw on the little guy's head, he started cleaning & purring. With its’ mouth open came the loudest purr I had ever heard from any cat, much less this little tennis ball-sized matt. Thor became a surrogate, even allowing him to nurse his "Male" nipples at times. The vet treated his severely infected "eyes", after a month, he could see. Being quite the hunter, we named him Nimrod. He slept with Thor everyday even till the last breath Thor breathed, when he cleaned Thor's head and walked away. My nieces brought in a sick, abandoned kitten from their barn 2 days later. Nimrod grabbed him by the nape of the neck, he's cleaned him every day for 4 years. Cats pay it forward.

[Catty1]

http://www.viralnova.com/5-years-to-...ampaign=aweber

This Father Was Given 5 Years To Live. What He Did For His Young Daughter Is Beyond Words.

January 28, 2014

One of the most touching stories I have ever seen was recently posted to Reddit.com. A father was diagnosed with a cancer that would only leave him months or years to live. Doctors said that there would only be a 8% chance he would live for 5 years. So, he decided to leave behind something wonderful for his daughter.
Garth is 44 years-old and has been diagnosed with cancer three times.

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He has been writing notes for his daughter, Emma, every day since she was in second grade.

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Garth knows that he will soon die, but he doesn’t want Emma to go one day without a note from him. He wants to know she will be thinking of him.

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So, he decided to write a note for every day she would be in high school.

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He has written 740 notes. He has 86 to go.

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The notes are just tiny words of encouragement for her.

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Just so she can smile.

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It’s unfair that Garth will be taken from Emma so soon.

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But at least she will always have his memory and words to keep her company.

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Especially the memories of them dressing as Jedis together during a superhero dance (even though the school didn’t recognize Jedis as superheroes).

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To find out more about Garth and Emma’s napkin notes, visit their Facebook page or this post about their story.
Source: reddit.com
Life is rarely fair, but it’s inspiring to see people rise up against their fate and do something incredibly inspirational. Just like Garth. Share his touching story with others by clicking share below.

[Catty1]

http://www.viralnova.com/college-stu...ampaign=aweber

What A Poor College Student Did In His Dorm Room Is Unbelievable. Everyone Should See This.

January 28, 2014 Stories

Guo Shijun is a young man that has faced incredible difficulties in his life. His father became paralyzed during a building accident while on the job. He has to care for him full time because his mother is unable to. She was mentally disabled from a long battle with meningitis when Shijun was just a child. But, even though Guo Shijun spent the majority of days caring for his parents, he found a way to make it into a top university. That’s not all he was able to accomplish, though.
Instead of giving up on his studies or leaving his family behind, he did something else. He convinced the university to let him keep his father in his dorm room.

EuroPics


Guo Shijun rigged up a special bed for his paralyzed father. He’s able to check up on and take care of his dad much more easily now.

EuroPics


Shijun’s grandparents take care of his mother while he cares for his father.

EuroPics


No one would have blamed him for leaving his father behind, but this son couldn’t possibly abandon him.

EuroPics




Guo Shijun is paying his tuition with help from his family and friends (approximately $3,400). He managed to earn a scholarship to help him on his way, but he doesn’t mind the hard work. He knows life isn’t easy. But even though he is struggling now, he still has hope.
“I think once I graduate things will get much better.”
Source: dailymail.co.uk
Share his inspirational story with others by clicking the Share button below. More people need to hear about this son’s unconditional love and kindness.