Exclusive: Good Samaritan Helps Talk Man Off Edge Of Brooklyn Bridge
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A man standing at the edge of the Brooklyn Bridge was helped down by a total stranger.
It's the Monday after Thanksgiving, there's a snow storm in New York City, and it feels like everyone's just trying to get through the day.
Joey Hansen got to leave his job in Manhattan a little early because of the weather, so the 29-year-old plumber hitched a ride back to Brooklyn with his buddy.
"Anybody after a long day's work is always anxious to get home, especially sitting in traffic," Hansen said.
They were going over the Brooklyn Bridge around noon when they saw someone standing on the ledge.
Hansen began yelling from the passenger side window, "Walk back! It's not worth your life."
"Trying to just express myself as much as I can to him, to get, you know, for him to not hear me, for him to listen to me," Hansen told CBS2's Ali Bauman.
In a video Hansen recorded, he can be heard yelling, "It's not worth it. You can change anything in your life, anything, bro. Anything."
Hansen says there were police officers trying to talk him down, but the man just stood there.
"There were drivers just looking and driving away, looking and driving away," Hansen said. "He was staring straight out into the water ... I made sure, I made it a point that his life is worth more than whatever his problems are."
In the video, Hansen says, "Turn around, it's not worth it." And then, the man turns.
"And he looked at me, so that's how I knew he was listening to me," Hansen said. "And it looked to me like he was crying ... He turned around and just walked right off."
The NYPD says with the help of a civilian, officers were able to get the 24-year-old man to come down safely and he was taken to a hospital for treatment.
"If everyone put out just a hand to help, people will grab it. They want help," Hansen said.
One stranger helping another up by talking him down.
