A good Samaritan helped police track down a coffee truck driver who allegedly hit a 90-year-old man in Williamsburg yesterday. Police said the 90-year-old man was hit by a truck at Metropolitan Avenue near Orient Avenue around 11:30 a.m. Thursday morning. “Coffee cups fell out of the back of the truck, and he was going very fast,” witness Aslam Khan told the Post. Although the driver fled the scene, a good Samaritan followed him, cut him off a few blocks away at Meeker Avenue and Lorimer Street, and called 911. more ›

A good Samaritan stopped a long-haired man from sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman on Staten Island this week. Vince Corrado was taking the garbage out when he heard the girl scream in West Brighton at around 9 p.m. on Monday: “It was a scream of terror, just blood-curdling. I saw someone under a car in front of my house and yelled, ‘Who the hell is it?’ I see a guy get up and run off down the block and then I see a girl stand up," Corrado told the Post. more ›

Police say that a Bronx man stabbed his roommate in the head with a machete, then set himself and his apartment on fire. The 36-year-old man, whose named hasn't been released yet, didn't die in the fire however—a passerby saw him and saved his life before he burned to death. "I got scorched. He was still in flames. His clothes were burnt completely off of him," said good Samaritan Ken Banks. more ›

After a hard day of just being a friggin' hero, pulling your fellow man out of the twisted, flaming wreckage of a highway pileup, a guy is entitled to $1,200 of body work on his Expedition, a little $21,000 shoulder surgery and maybe a cold one, right? But the NYPD has slapped the cuffs on Gabriel Hernandez, a Bronx resident who is accused of insurance fraud after authorities viewed a tape of the accident that shows Hernandez wasn't actually involved in the accident. more ›

Two children were saved from a Bronx fire yesterday afternoon by jumping from their fourth-floor window onto a quilt held out by good Samaritans on the street. Fire marshals have determined that one of the kids was playing with a toy near their stove when it caught fire, and that the three children were home alone. Their father says he had left them to give a DNA sample for a sexual assault investigation. more ›

It's been two days since Blizzageddon rocked our tranquil city, and many outer borough residents are growing restless over the lack of plows. Yesterday an 87-year-old couple told us that they worried they wouldn't be able to get out if there were an emergency, and readers from Bayside to Kensington to Ridgewood have told us that there has been little to no plowing in their neighborhoods. Even the politicians are pissed. more ›

An undocumented immigrant has been arrested for a hit and run, mowing down four teenage girls and driving off with two still clinging to the hood of the car on Wednesday. Elias Garcia was arrested on charges of assault, reckless driving and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child after being chased down by a good Samaritan who witnessed the incident. Witnesses said Garcia stopped and started a few times after the accident, and Nassau County Police Lt. Kevin Smith told WCBS, "We believe what happened was he actually stopped at first, kind of looked at what he had done, and then began to take off again." more ›

The dad who hopped into the East River Saturday to save his little girl Bridget says he feels "bad and really guilty and horrible" for letting her out of his sight, even though it was only for about ten seconds. David Anderson snapped a picture of his 2-year-old on the gangplank of a ship museum docked at South Street Seaport. After reviewing the shot, he deleted it, then looked up to find his daughter gone. A peek over the railing revealed she was floating in the water 20 feet below. "She was lying there motionless. I thought I might have just lost my little girl. There were 15 people walking up the ramp and I just broke through them like they weren't there," recalls the dad, an unemployed former ski patrol worker. more ›

A New Jersey woman narrowly avoided a fiery death in yesterday’s crash on the Long Island Expressway, thanks to an anonymous Good Samaritan. On Saturday morning a gasoline tanker clipped Marie Medina’s Dodge Neon when she stalled on the L.I.E. near exit 48. The truck flipped on its side and exploded into a giant fireball that killed driver Mujahid Shahin, a Brooklyn man in his fifties, according to the NY Post. But someone pulled Medina from her vehicle before she became the accident's second casualty. "He saved me. I kept thanking him," said the woman, who has only minor injuries. Just this morning, officials re-opened eastbound lanes on the expressway, reported AP. more ›

A nice story: One Wednesday, UPS driver John Piontkowski was driving and making deliveries in Randolph, NJ when he spotted a bank bag in the street—and inside was $5,200 in cash! The Daily Record reports, "Piontkowski found a Bank of America deposit slip in the bag and saw the money came from Stuyvesant Liquors in Jersey City." Without hesitating, Piontkowski headed to a Bank of America and turned over the money. The store owner Don Knaus were running errands and somehow lost track of the money; he was grateful when the bank called to say their money had been found. The couple later thanked Piontkowski in person—and with a "very nice" reward. more ›

Last night, a woman trying to park her car somehow ended jumping a curb and sending her car—which also carried her two teen daughters—through a railing, off the pier and into Sheepshead Bay. Luckily, a fisherman and some others heard their cries and jumped into the water to save them. Keith Gorman, a deckhand at the Sea Queen 7, told the Daily News, "I heard a car smash. I ran through the crowd and I realized that a car went on the sidewalk and into the water... I took my boots off and my jacket and jumped over the rail and into the water." more ›

Yay! Upon hearing screams from a Bronx building, a stranger ran up a fire escape, kicked in the window of a burning apartment and rescued a 4-year-old boy. Horia Cretan said, "I heard somebody scream, I didn't know what was happening outside. I looked up and just couldn't see nothing, there was too much smoke. I just kicked in--I kicked in gear. I put the ladder down, I went upstairs, I did the best I could." more ›

The 33-year-old man who was struck by a falling tree branch in Central Park appears to be recovering: Sasha Blair-Goldensohn's mother Gwenda Blair told CityRoom, "He finally started responding when they said, ‘Raise your hand and open your eye.'" She also said to the Daily News, "He's slowly improving. We think that he's going to be okay." more ›

Actor Stephen Baldwin had invited a homeless man to live in the cottage on his Rockland County estate—and now that cops have arrested the man on heroin charges. Apparently Baldwin, aka the youngest Baldwin, met the 51-year-old Jimmy Parks who was living in a tent near a McDonald's in Central Nyack; Baldwin, a born-again Christian, offered him shelter at his home in Upper Grandview. However, police became suspicious after people started to head to the cottage—Parks was allegedly dealing drugs. State Police Capt. Joseph Tripodo said, "Mr. Baldwin didn't have anything to do with this. He's says he's deeply religious and tried to help the guy out. The guy was down on his luck and he loaned him some money and gave him a place to live." Related: The actor has recently been having some mortgage problems. more ›

The "not my baby back" cabbie who made headlines last year for his questionable Good Samartian act has now officially been charged with first-degree attempted rape. Klever Saliema is accused of forcing himself on a female passenger who had passed out during her cab ride home from Astoria to Woodside in Queens. more ›

Yesterday afternoon, a gas tanker overturned and exploded on the NJ Turnpike near the Meadowlands. Authorities believe the tanker failed to negotiate the curve on a ramp; heavy smoke could be see for miles. Two good Samaritans driving behind the truck helped smother the flames. One, Angelia Mercado, used her coat to bundle up truck driver Rajinder Singh and drove him to a hospital in Newark (she also said Singh gave her phone numbers of family members to call). Singh, a Queens resident, is currently in critical condition after suffering second- and third-degree burns. more ›

Two incidents of people trying to stop others from harassing or beating people have had some violent consequences. more ›

A 29-year-old woman scheduled to testify in a kidnapping case today was possibly thrown from a Harlem building yesterday morning. Joy Blackman, who was a witness to a kidnapping and was also a witness against her accused rapist in a separate case, was found dead in an alleyway at 145 West 145th Street. more ›

A New York State senator is proposing a law that makes criminals legally responsible for the inadvertent harm to helpful bystanders who might come to the aid of a person under attack. The proposal comes in the wake of the death of Flonarza Byas, who may have been killed by Maurice Parks while he was defending himself during a robbery. more ›

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Transit police officer Gregory Chin is being hailed as a hero for stopping a crazed man who had just stabbed two people in Murray Hill from inflicting more violence. The Post and Daily News interviewed Chin, who was off-duty when he saw Lee Coleman attacking 67-year-old Susan Barron with a variety of knives (knives that Coleman stole from a restaurant) on Saturday morning. more ›

A driver, either "emotionally disturbed" or simply drunk, caused a crazy, violent scene yesterday in Ozone Park, Queens. Fifty-year-old Joseph Leonardi had been driving the wrong way on 83rd Street, when his car "hopped onto the sidewalk," according to the Sun. The car was headed towards Sister Hannah Marie Cox, but a Good Samaritan Juan Valez pushed her away and the Buick hit a tree and a building. Leonardi got out of car and ran for six blocks, with people chasing him. But then Leonardi threatened them with a huge knife. more ›

Hoorah! The Brooklyn Paper reports that 94 year old Dominick Diomede has found a new home. Diomede was evicted by his Carroll Gardens landlord, because he didn't have a lease - he had been living there for two decades, based on the verbal agreement he had with the previous owner. Now, Diomede will move into one of non-profit Fifth Avenue Committee's subsidized apartments on Warren Street. A Good Samaritan stepped in with $2,000 for another month's rent at Diomede's current Luquer Street apartment when the story broke in The Brooklyn Paper, as there were fears the 94 year old would live in his car; the Samaritan said he wanted Diomede "to keep whatever dignity he can." And the senior received many offers for free moving, so we have a feeling the transition moving from his home of 20 years will be a little easier. more ›

We'd like to take a moment to talk about the High Entrance Exit Turnstile (HEET) at many subway stations. A friend was telling us how he was fined for allowing another straphanger enter the station with him. Our friend wasn't trying to deliberately flout the law - he thought he was being a Good Samaritan because the straphanger had just swiped through, but accidentally turned the turnstile from one behind where you're supposed to, so he was out of luck on his unlimited ride Metrocard, thanks to the 15 waiting period before using it again. Now, this is something Gothamist sees at least once a day - some more, unsuspecting person doesn't realize that when you use a HEET, you need to be right inside in order to get to the other side. So, our friend let the poor chap enter the station with him on his card - only for a cop to ticket him. D'oh! more ›