Florida police are hailing a lawn care worker as a hero for taking action to save a man in a medical emergency despite homeowners yelling at him to get off their lawn and go die somewhere else.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post that a lawn care worker identified only as Tony was going to work on Monday when he noticed a driver in medical distress.
The man was having a seizure while behind the wheel of his car.
Tony immediately abandoned his lawn mower and jumped to grab hold of the fender of the car but it kept rolling down the street. It ran over Tony’s foot at one point, but he was wearing steel toe boots and was not harmed.
The car eventually stopped on a home’s lawn, but the windows were rolled up and the doors were locked. Tony called for help from the homeowners.
Police said that they responded by yelling for Tony to get off their lawn.
“Get off our lawn!” they allegedly yelled. “Get the man out of here. Have him die somewhere else!”
Undeterred, Tony realized the man lived nearby and he ran to his home to alarm the man’s family. The man’s wife was at home and she called police to come to his aid. Paramedics soon arrived to help him.
The police went on to say that the man called them to ask for Tony’s phone number after the incident.
“I want to talk to Tony,” the man told the police. “He saved my life.”
On Wednesday, the man and his wife expressed their gratefulness to Tony and gave him a hug, police said.
“A true neighborhood hero!!” said the police in their post.