This story got wide play the past week, and although the angelic officer was widely praised and interviewed on Good Morning America, the NY Times followed up with the homeless man and found him walking barefoot again around New York City:
But what of the shoeless man?For days, his bare feet -- blistered and battered -- were well known. Yet precise details about him proved elusive.
His name is Jeffrey Hillman, and on Sunday night, he was once again wandering the streets -- this time on the Upper West Side -- with no shoes.
The $100 pair of boots that Officer DePrimo had bought for him at a Sketchers store on Nov. 14 were nowhere to be seen.
"Those shoes are hidden. They are worth a lot of money," Mr. Hillman said in an interview on Broadway in the 70s. "I could lose my life."
Mr. Hillman, 54, was by turns aggrieved, grateful and taken aback by all the attention that had come his way -- even as he struggled to figure out what to do about it.
"I was put on YouTube, I was put on everything without permission. What do I get?" he said. "This went around the world, and I want a piece of the pie."
Perhaps the moral of the story is just to give the homeless man or woman straight-up cash, and forgo the present part of it?
This country is one of the most free in the world, and with it comes the freedom to walk barefoot, even if you're homeless and it's winter time.
What a difficult set of circumstances.
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Tags: homeless man, New York City, NYPD, philanthropy
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