A Delaware man stranded in New Jersey gets help from an unknown couple

Thomas Wheatcraft survived many tough situations considering his two decades in the Air Force, but he wasn’t sure he would survive that terrible Sunday night in 2003.

On his way back to Odessa from his brother’s house in New Hampshire after Thanksgiving, his blue-gray Ford Windstar broke down on the Garden State Parkway near Bloomfield, New Jersey.

He suddenly lost engine power and pulled into a welcome center parking lot, only to discover that his drive belt had completely broken after the hood of his car popped open. The center’s gas station employees told Wheatcraft they don’t work on cars and towing services were not available.

He hailed a cab to the nearest AutoZone and bought the last drive belt he had in stock, but it shredded as soon as some guys in the parking lot helped him put it on. His pulley was bad and he needed a new one, along with a new drive belt.

Another AutoZone had a drive belt in stock, but didn’t sell the pulley he needed. Since there were no more shops to try and night was in sight, he had to sleep at the rest stop and try again the next morning.

“They had a McDonald’s there all night in the rest room, and I was walking back and forth trying to stay warm all night because it was so freezing,” he said. ‘I thought I wouldn’t live to see the next day. I’d either freeze to death or get hit in the head, robbed or something, in a broken down car.’

The next morning, equipped with bus instructions from a McDonald’s employee, he climbed through a fence to get to the bus stop and checked a handful of stores. He finally had all the parts he needed, but the repair required two people. His brother was busy at work, so his only option was to ask a stranger.

“I thought: this is hopeless. Who is going to help a stranger these days?” he said.

A man walked by waiting for his wife to get coffee from McDonald’s. When Wheatcraft asked for help and the man did so, he discovered that the stranger was a mechanic. The couple from Worcester, Massachusetts, was traveling through New Jersey on their way to Florida for the winter.

The man quickly helped him put on the drive belt and the couple jump-started his car to fix the dead battery and check the new parts. While Wheatcraft insisted on paying the man for his help, the mechanic refused, replying, “I just want to help someone out every now and then,” Wheatcraft recalled.

Wheatcraft was “stunned” by their generosity when they left.

After a sleepless, cold night, he hadn’t thought to ask for their names at that moment, and he immediately regretted it, wanting to repay their kindness.

Now living at Brookdale Senior Living in Dover, Wheatcraft still remembers the intense chill of that fall evening and the mysterious couple. He never found out who they were, but he still thinks about them and wishes he could have bought them dinner on the way to Florida.

“I’ve never forgotten that… I feel like that man and his wife saved my life because I thought I would freeze to death if I had to spend another night,” he said. “To me, they were definitely good Samaritans.”

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