Most of the stuff we find on the sidewalk amounts to nothing. But in the back of our minds, we’re always hoping for that golden ticket twist of fate that will change life as we know it. So when a homeless man who lived on the streets of New Haven, Connecticut, found thousands of dollars right before him, he was forced to choose between doing the right thing and snatching his own proverbial golden ticket. His ultimate choice started a chain reaction he never saw coming!
Winters in New England are hard for most people. No one likes having to contend with the notoriously brutal conditions — especially not a guy like Elmer Alvarez, who, down on his luck, found him self weathering the extreme winter conditions without any sort of shelter or security.
See, Elmer was homeless. The freezing winds and the snow piles that accumulate faster than snowplows can keep sweep ’em away were more dangerous to him than a guy in a heated home, car, and office.
Still, he already had several winters in New Haven under his belt, so he understood the difficulties of the months ahead. Times had been worse for Elmer, despite his current situation.
A history of addiction had led Elmer down a difficult path. Even though he didn’t have a stable place to rest his head each night, he managed to kick his addictions by attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Talk about beating the odds!
Unfortunately, finding a way out of being homeless constantly tormented him; getting yourself off the streets is much easier said than done. But pacing the familiar streets on one chilly November morning, Elmer walked right up to an opportunity…
Right in the center of the path was a bit a paper. Most people walking by wouldn’t give the scrap a second glance, but Elmer stopped and examined the forgotten note.
It wasn’t a discarded receipt or a bit of trash: the paper was a freshly signed check. Air whooshed from his lungs when his eyes landed on the amount written on the line…
The amount of the check was a stunning $10,000. With it endorsed and ready to go, Elmer could’ve transformed his life with that kind of cheddar!No one was around, nothing was stopping him from running to the nearest bank.
But taking the money never crossed Elmer’s mind, not for a second. He turned the check over and, low and behold, a phone number was in fact listed on the back.
Elmer walked the streets until he finally managed to track down a friend with a cellphone. As a Spanish speaker, he had his friend make the call to the check’s addressee.
At the same time, in an office a few blocks away, a prominent businesswoman heard her phone ring. Roberta Hoskie, a self-made real estate magnate, was CEO and President of both Outreach Realty Services and Outreach School of Real Estate. She answered the call.
She rifled through her bag, not believing it was possible, only to quickly realize he was right. Shocked that someone was kind enough to reach out, she agreed to meet him immediately.
Once on the street, Roberta opened Facebook Live to document the resolution of the stranger’s good deed. She spotted Elmer and his friend, and couldn’t thank them enough for doing the right thing.
With Elmer too polite to draw attention to himself, his friend let Roberta know her savior was, in fact, homeless. This struck a chord with Roberta on a personal level that made the events all the more meaningful…
See, before she was a high-powered real estate queen, Roberta faced similar obstacles to Elmer’s. At 17 years old, Roberta was pregnant. To care for her child she had to drop out of school.
She’d been a financially difficult place to begin with, but now, with another mouth to feed, she and her child had no choice but to enter housing shelters to avoid living on the streets.
But thanks to a crucial internship at Yale University that catapulted her life out of debilitating poverty, Roberta was able to break out of the cycle — but she never forgot her time in the shelters.
It was because of her past that she knew that her run in with Elmer was not a coincidence. She resolved to take the opportunity to pay it forward, in a big way.
Telling Elmer to wait right there, she hurried back to her office to get her checkbook. She wanted to do more for Elmer than just give him some temporary reprieve.
While brainstorming on Facebook live, a suggestion from a follower gave her the idea. Roberta smiled and vowed, “I’m going to teach him how to fish.”
Back on the street, Roberta handed over a check, this one addressed to Elmer, and he burst into grateful tears. The pair hugged, and Roberta shared her own story with him.
Elmer couldn’t believe just how much they had in common. Their newfound connection fresh in their hearts, they parted ways. That’s when Roberta put her plans into motion.
But prejudice reunited them faster than Roberta expected. When Elmer went to cash his check, even with a signature and his ID, shockingly, the bank refused to help him.
They suspected it was fraudulent, just because Elmer wasn’t their typical customer. A quick call to Roberta eased their unwarranted suspicion about the homeless man.
Two weeks later, Roberta arranged a meeting with Elmer. Thanks to her Facebook video, over 13,000 people heard about Elmer’s good deed, and it piqued the interest of the news media.
When Elmer walked in the door, he was greeted with applause by a packed room. He was totally overwhelmed. This wasn’t what he expected when he agreed to meet! Crazier still, things were about to get even more surprising for him…
Roberta Hoskie / Facebook
First, Elmer was presented with a thank you certificate from Ms. Millionaire Mindset, an organization aimed at combating poverty. Next, Roberta laid out her true plan to “teach Elmer to fish.”
Instead of just paying him for his kindness and honesty, Roberta was going to teach him how to set himself up for success. Elmer was going to be given classes at her real estate school, at no cost to him.
Before classes started, Elmer would be taught to improve his English skills. But Roberta had another even bigger surprise. Emotion strained her voice while she explained the best part of her plan.
Roberta told him she’d found him a place to live, an apartment he could share with his girlfriend, with the first 6 months of rent and bills completely covered in full!
Emotions spilled over. Elmer wrapped Roberta in a hug that said everything he couldn’t. Tears streaked his face, and the relief that he wouldn’t face another night on the streets washed over him.
But Roberta thought of everything, even beyond the 6-month gift. After taking the real estate classes, Elmer was set up with a standing job interview at her colleague’s real estate office.
Once he felt prepared, he could tackle the interview. So thrilled with gratitude, he burst out, “I’m ready now!” But granting all Elmer’s dreams wasn’t Roberta’s goal. She wanted to truly pay it forward…
So, a few weeks later, they met up to see how he was progressing with his real estate classes. With her followers watching live, it was Elmer’s turn to deliver some good news.
Waiting to reveal the results of his real estate exam together, Roberta flipped the cover and beamed. Elmer had passed the test! Now just one test remained between him and an endless path of opportunity.
Public interest in Elmer and Roberta’s inspirational friendship continued to grow. In December, Spanish language television station Telemundo invited the duo on a show to share their unique story.
Elmer revealed that the catalyst was the sudden death of his 33-year-old brother. Tortured by grief, Elmer fell into a life addiction and crime. All in all, he served 5 stints in jail, and in turn, lost contact with the rest of his family…
..Until the host told him to turn around. Standing on the stage were Elmer’s two sisters! Viewers watched live as the family rejoiced in their emotional reunion. Roberta, who had been communicating via a translator, wept!
Right when his heart rate stabilized from the big reveal, there came another jolt. After years of not seeing each other, Elmer’s mother walked out on to the stage. It was all too much for everyone’s tear ducts.
Elmer’s simple choice to do the right thing put a set of wheels into motion. A slew of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities presented themselves to Elmer, and Roberta fulfilled her mission to help end the cycle of poverty.
Friends joined by a bizarre twist of fate, Roberta and Elmer focused their energies on a project — with their non-profit, Outreach Foundation — to help other homeless individuals.
Their goal was to acquire dilapidated properties and flip them into transitional homes that offer services beyond the average shelter for the homeless. It would grant people the same shot Elmer was given. Of course, even smaller gestures can make a world of difference to struggling people.
Nicknamed “Josete” by locals, he liked to think of himself as “el espíritu de la plaza” — the spirit of the square. He went out of his way to connect with everyone in his neighborhood, though life was far from kind to him.
Josete worked as an electrician in his younger days, until struggles with depression and mental health derailed his career. Without anyone to support him through these troubled times, he lost everything.
By 2017, the Spaniard reached his mid-50s, though he had the long hair and ragged beard of a much older man. He certainly stood out from the crowd. But was his unkempt appearance holding him back?
One Palma resident named Salva Garcia couldn’t help but notice Josete’s plight. A number of residents tended to brush off the homeless man, but Salva took the time to get to know him a little bit.
The former electrician now sustained himself on a series of small-time jobs, namely parking neighbors’ cars. Of course, he didn’t have a license to do so, which put him at constant risk for arrest.
The parking gig pulled in enough money to keep Josete fed, but again and again, he came up short when looking at apartments. He just couldn’t scrape together the funds to rent a room.
While Salva unfortunately didn’t have the spare cash to get Josete back on his feet, he did suspect that he could help the kindhearted man. Salva explained to Jose that he was one of the best barbers in the city and asked if he wanted a complimentary haircut.
Figuring that a makeover could improve his job prospects, Josete agreed. But he did make one unusual request: he asked Salva to close the shutters in front of his mirror, so that he’d only see his reflection once the transformation was complete.
Though the homeless man had decades of knots and tangles to work through, Salva was a true artist. He tore through the matted hair, and, gradually, a totally new man started to take shape.
Salva and his assistants uncovered portions of Josete’s face that hadn’t seen sunlight in ages. As the barber pulled out a bottle from a drawer, he revealed that his plan involved more than just trimming the displaced man’s hair.
He dyed Josete’s hair a dark, rich brown! Already looking far younger, one of Salva’s assistants moved on to his bushy eyebrows. The makeover proved a strange sensation for a guy who for so long only worried about where he would sleep that night.
Still, Salva’s magic wasn’t through yet. Knowing that clothes make the man, he supplied Josete with a crisp white shirt, fashionable pants, and a pair of snappy shoes. Suddenly, he looked more like a tech CEO than a vagrant.
After pulling off every trick in the book, Salva could only hope that his friend would approve of the new look. Josete leaned forward in anticipation as the barber uncovered the mirror.
When Josete first set eyes on his new look, he could barely speak. He looked fantastic, like a man who had everything in the world going his way. Josete wondered how the people of Palma would react to the change.
This sentiment was echoed in the life of Dave Cochran, who, like Josete, was barely scraping by. If it weren’t for the company of his girlfriend and their dog, he would’ve been entirely alone in Kansas City — until he gave back to the right person.
See, he lived in his old Chevrolet. The arrangement didn’t offer much comfort to begin with, but things got worse when someone smashed a couple of his windows. He had to tape trash bags over the gaps, which didn’t do much to keep the winter air at bay.
There was irony in his shattered windows, he knew. See, back in his drug-using days, he picked up a criminal record for breaking into cars. But in more recent years, he’d promised himself he’d leave crime and narcotics in the dust. He’d turn himself around.
One weekend in January 2019, Dave bundled up in anticipation of a snowstorm. He planned on waiting out the blizzard in his beat-up car, but a turn of events on a nearby street brought him out into the cold.
Despite the perilous conditions, quite a few drivers were still out and about, and a number of them seemed ill-prepared. Dave saw cars sliding and fish-tailing all over the roads. Some vehicles even got stuck.
Realizing these drivers needed a hand more than anything else, Dave rushed out into the cold. He greeted the endangered drivers with a smile and pushed their cars through slushy patches, or dug out the wheels when necessary.
After already sending quite a few vehicles on their way, Dave spotted one BMW that had really gotten into trouble. Caught in a snowbank, the car needed more than a push to break free. Luckily, Dave reassured the driver he knew exactly what to do.
The driver, who said he was late for a football game (they weren’t far from the Kansas City Chiefs’ stadium), watched as Dave attached cables from his Chevrolet to the BMW. With a rev of the engine, his truck yanked the trapped automobile right back onto the road.
Afterwards, the stranger, who introduced himself as Jeff, thanked Dave for the assist. He tried to give Dave a few bucks, but the Good Samaritan wouldn’t even think about it. When he wished Jeff a speedy trip to the stadium, Dave got a major bombshell dropped on him.
Jeff wouldn’t be watching a football game that afternoon; he’d be playing in it. This anonymous driver revealed he was actually Jeff Allen, an offensive lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs. They had a playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts that afternoon.
Jeff and his teammates manhandled the Colts that day, and he wanted to give credit to the secret MVP of the game. The football pro, however, had no idea how to reach Dave again. He shared his story on social media, hoping Kansas City could help him.
The thrill of attending such a big event, where nobody was looking at Dave with pity or fear, was electrifying! Though, very sadly, the Patriots squeaked past the Chiefs in overtime.
Chiefs fans set up a GoFundMe page for the down-on-his-luck hero. In addition to paying for new car windows, it also covered a five-night hotel stay for Dave and his girlfriend. He hadn’t slept in a warm bed for quite a long time.
Inspired by his selflessness, some local companies also donated clothes and other products to help Dave get back on his feet. For the first time in years, he could truly think about restarting his career and rebuilding his life.
