Police officer buys train ticket for deaf French-speaking traveler stranded in Pittsburgh

By KDKA-TV producer Ashley Funyak

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    PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A traveler who recently found himself unexpectedly stuck in Pittsburgh is now back home, thanks to the help of a kind-hearted police officer.

The Pittsburgh Bureau of Police says Downtown Public Safety Center officers were recently called to the Greyhound bus station for reports of a disorderly male. However, the department says that’s not what officers found when they arrived.

“It turns out, he was just a male who was deaf and didn’t speak English or read English,” says Pittsburgh Police Officer Steven Harris. “So it just turned out he just needed help to get on a bus back to New York, and then eventually Montreal.”

Pittsburgh police said when he got off the bus to stretch his legs, the bus left without him, taking his luggage with it.

“We hooked up his phone to an internet hotspot, and from there we called the translator line,” Harris says. “We were able to finally basically boil it down to that he didn’t have any cash and he needed a way out and his bags were missing and they were up in New York, so we got him to New York.”

Harris then quickly went to work, not as a police officer, but as a fellow human being, helping a stranger who was stranded in his city.

Pittsburgh police say Harris then paid for a new ticket to get the man back home. It cost him $113 out of pocket.

“I simply used my own bank card to buy the guy a ticket,” says Harris.

“We’re supposed to be good men. Good men helping other good men. That’s it,” he said.

“When I got the email … I was just amazed,” says Pittsburgh Police Zone 2 Commander Tim Novosel, who is Harris’ commanding officer. “But I know Officer Harris. I’ve known him before, he actually left the department and came back because he loved the work Downtown so much.”

“He just thinks differently than most people,” he said.

Harris explained he learned it all by his great-grandma, who raised him.

“I think I was raised for different times, in the current times,” he said. Harris went on to say that his great-grandmother would have done something to help, and that’s why he also chose to do so.

Harris was asked if he believes he will see the man again. He says probably not, but to “just pay it forward.”

“Sometimes all it takes is for one person to recognize when you’re struggling,” a post on the police department’s Facebook page reads, along with a photo of Officer Harris and the man he helped. “Thank you Officer Harris for noticing a person in need and taking the time to find a solution.”

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