Strangers Facts

On April 18, 2024, a 71-year-old man's SUV slammed into a guardrail on Interstate 94 in St. Paul and burst into flames - he was unconscious and trapped inside. Seven strangers stopped, ran into the smoke, and pulled him out seconds before the car was fully engulfed. One of them, a UPS driver named Michael Coy, climbed inside the burning vehicle to unbuckle him.

A woman drove her SUV into the water behind a Virginia Beach seafood restaurant. The doors wouldn't open. Strangers smashed the windows as it sank. One of them was Jeremy Way - a 17-year Navy rescue swimmer who happened to be eating lunch nearby. He put her in a cross-chest carry and swam her to safety. The SUV vanished moments later.

Eight-year-old Olivia Heid and her 4-year-old brother RJ sled off a ridge and vanish into a frozen New Jersey pond. Kieran Foley, 14, loses a boot in the mud and keeps going barefoot. His four friends link arms behind him on the ice. One by one, he hands both kids down the chain to shore.

Harold Jellicoe Percival died alone at 99 with no family to attend his funeral. The care home placed a four-line notice in the Lytham St Annes Express asking anyone to come. Someone tweeted a photo of it. On Armistice Day at 11am, over 200 strangers packed the crematorium and scores more stood outside in the rain.

A 25-year-old woman was pinned face-down under a Mercedes-Benz at a Manhattan intersection. The rear tire was on her back. Within seconds, nearly a dozen strangers sprinted over and tilted the 2-ton SUV onto two wheels to free her. She crawled out with no broken bones. New Yorkers, apparently.

Jhonatan Gonzalez was hiking the Narrows at Zion National Park with his family - kids as young as 1 - when the calm river suddenly turned waist-deep and raging, choked with logs and debris. He and his brothers planted themselves in the current and formed a human chain. Strangers on the bank grabbed on. Dozens of hikers, including toddlers, passed hand-to-hand to safety. Everyone made it out.

Ajay Haridasse collapsed 1,000 feet from the Boston Marathon finish line with severe cramps. Two strangers - Aaron Beggs of Northern Ireland and Robson De Oliveira of Brazil - stopped their own races, slid under his arms, and walked him across. The man they carried finished in 2:44:32. Beggs crossed 4 seconds later.

A man's leg slipped into the gap between a train carriage and the platform at Stirling Station in Perth, Australia. Railway workers tried for ten minutes and couldn't free him. So they asked the crowd for help. Around 50 strangers lined up against the carriage and pushed together. The train tilted sideways. He walked free - unhurt.

Carson Schmidt and Erik Masuda drove seven hours from Sacramento for a ski day at Palisades Tahoe. On their very first run, they spotted ski tips in the snow - and found a stranger buried several feet deep, face turning purple. They dug him out with their bare hands. He gasped, came around, and skied off to find his wife.