A friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has gone viral after jumping into action by springing out of his Jeep to rescue a wheelchair-bound man struggling to cross traffic.
The man, Christopher Hellenthal, was still wearing his Spider-Man costume for Superhero Day at a nearby trampoline park where he works. When he saw the individual struggling in traffic at intersection of Caraway Road and Highland Drive in Jonesboro on Tuesday, he hurried to assist him, telling the man, “I got you.”
“Not in my 7 years in the department have I witnessed this,” Sally Smith, a Jonesboro Police Department spokesperson, told The Associated Press.
The local police department hailed him a hero
Just seconds before the light changed and the lines of traffic moved forward, Hellenthal quickly rolled the wheelchair user to safety. The Jonesboro Police Department complimented Hellenthal for assisting the man in crossing to safety after the incident was filmed by a street surveillance camera and posted on social media.
“Some people say cops are heroes, but even we need a little helping hand,” the Jonesboro Police Department in Arkansas wrote this week about the good Samaritan in a Spider-Man costume. “Earlier today, a citizen needing a little assistance got it in the form of a true superhero. We were able to spot this little web of kindness on our intersection cameras. Thank you, sir, for helping this gentleman reach his destination safely. Whether it’s a red light or green light, there is always time to do what’s right!”
“I had a bunch of adrenaline pumping through me,” said the 20-year-old Hellenthal, who goes by @neaspidey on Instagram. “I was just kind of thinking, ‘I’m wearing this suit; it’s gonna be pretty funny.’”
Packy Magel, a manager at Ultimate Air Trampoline Park who works with Hellenthal, said he recognized him from the video and that it was “very much like him to do something like that and very much like him to be still in costume.”