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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

    Online Niel Posted on

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    Thomas Wheatcraft has survived many tough situations in his 20 years in the Air Force, but he wasn’t sure he would live through this horrific Sunday night in 2003.

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

    He suddenly lost engine power and pulled into a drop-in center parking lot, only to find his seatbelt completely shattered after smashing the hood of his car. Attendants at the center’s gas station told Wheatcraft that they were not working on cars and that towing services were not available.

    He hailed a cab to the nearest AutoZone and bought the last drive belt in stock, but it broke as soon as a couple of guys in the parking lot helped him put it on. His pulley was bad and needed a new one along with another new drive belt.

    Another AutoZone had a drive belt in stock, but did not sell the pulley he needed. With no more stores to try and night looming, he would have to sleep in the stern and try again in the morning.

    “They had a McDonald’s all night in the rest area there, and I was pacing back and forth to try to keep warm all night because it was so cold,” he said. “I thought I wouldn’t live to see the next day. I was either going to freeze to death or I was going to get run over or robbed or something in a wrecked car.”

    Equipped the next morning with bus directions from a McDonald’s employee, he climbed a fence to get to the bus stop and checked out a few shops. 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 thought, ‘It’s hopeless. Who’s going to help a stranger these days?'” he said.

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    A man who was waiting for his wife to get coffee from McDonald’s walked by. When Wheatcraft called for help and the man realized it, he learned that the stranger was a mechanic. The couple from Worcester, Mass., was passing through New Jersey on their way to Florida for the winter.

    The husband helped him quickly put on his drive belt and the couple gave his car a boost to fix the dead battery and check out the new parts. While Wheatcraft insisted on paying the man for his help, the mechanic refused, replying, “I like to help somebody out every now and then,'” Wheatcraft recalled.

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

    After an unwanted, cold night, he hadn’t thought to ask their names for a moment and immediately regretted it, wanting to repay their kindness.

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    Now living at Brookdale Senior Living in Dover, Wheatcraft still remembers the bitter 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 could have bought them dinner on the way to Florida.

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

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

    Online Niel
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