'I've got the dumbbell': Woman rescued at Florida intersection meets good Samaritans who helped her
Woman rescued at Florida intersection meets good Samaritans who helped her
With the orange dumbbell in hand, the woman who became unconscious while behind the wheel in Florida earlier in May – prompting a group of good Samaritans to rush to her aid, and captured on video that quickly went viral – thanked each and every one of them for coming to her rescue.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - With the orange dumbbell in hand, the woman who became unconscious while behind the wheel in Florida earlier in May – prompting a group of good Samaritans to rush to her aid, and captured on video that quickly went viral – thanked each and every one of them for coming to her rescue.
"I've got the dumbbell," said Laurie Rabyor, to laughs from those attending the press conference (we'll explain that in a few).
"I just want to thank every single one of you. You were amazing. I don't remember any of it," she said. "Just to know that a group of people of all different nationalities and religions - nobody thought of anything like that and they all just came together to help little old lady me – I appreciate it so so much you don't even know."
"My children love you, they just love you for helping their mom," she said.
The Boynton Beach Police Department shared the video on its social media page earlier this week hoping to identify the people who helped – and it quickly went viral.
Watch the initial video below.
The video showed Rabyor's vehicle slowly cross lanes and enter the intersection, while a coworker is seen running through the intersection yelling and waving at other vehicles. Soon, a handful of people get out of their vehicles to try and help.
One man attempts to punch the window, which doesn't work the first time. Then a woman appears to get an orange dumbbell from her vehicle, which is used to successfully smash the rear window, police said. That allowed another man to climb through the window and put the vehicle in park.
Eventually, the vehicle was moved to a local convenience store where paramedics were called. Rabyor is OK and well now.
Several of the people who spoke said they were stunned by the recognition and said they would have done what anyone else in that situation would have done to help.
"The moment I saw this young lady running across the street behind a car yelling, 'she's unconscious, she's unconscious,' there was no doubt in my mind that I needed to do something. So I just put my car in park and then took off running, said Army Staff Sgt. Juan Chavez Jr.
"After I saw the video I thought, that was pretty stupid but whatever."
"I saw a lady chasing a car through an intersection in south Florida and I thought, 'wow she's really mad at that lady,' said Marco Bartelone, when he initially saw the lady running after another car.
"I feel like I just did what anyone would do. It's so cliché to say that but i couldn't ‘t have done anything differently. I just want to say thanks to everybody else that helped," he saisd.