Last night I went to the corner store to see if they had paper towels. It was around 9:00 pm and I walked past the Metropolitan Community Church, which is on the corner of my street, and noticed a man sleeping in a little alcove. Last night it was about 20 degrees outside...REALLY cold. When I got home around 9:15 (the store was closed) I looked up the Hypothermia Hotline and called them. They are supposed to come by in vans and pick people up to get them out of the cold.
About 20 minutes later, around 9:45, I called again and gave them the exact address. They said they were dispatching a truck at that exact time. I watched "The Abyss" (a long and excellent movie) and then went to check to make sure the guy was not there anymore. It was around 12:30 and he was STILL OUT THERE.
I called the Hypothermia Hotline again and they said they were just switching shifts and didn't know anything about the guy, but they would send out a van. I told them I was going to call the police since it had been about 3 hours since I last called. I called the non-emergency number (if you don't know, that number is 311) and told them. The police dispatcher got on a 3-way call with the Hypothermia Hotline and they said they were sending a van. This morning the guy was not there anymore. There has been no traffic on the neighborhood listserv and I assume there would be if anything really bad had happened.
Should I have done more?
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2 comments:
Wow. what an interesting story! I'm impressed you did that much. I don't see how you could have done more given that they kept telling you they'd take care of it. Although its disturbing that they couldn't keep track of people due to a 'shift change'. I hope that's not true every time they change shifts!
Way to step up :)
Twice as much as I likely would have done, ordinary girl...
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