Subway Rider Snoozes On Complete Stranger's Shoulder
NEW YORK(CBSNewYork) -- If you were to search for the phrase "sleeping on shoulder" you would find plenty of images of family members, friends and babies.
You might not expect to find a picture of two strangers nestled together, but that is exactly the picture that has made a big splash on the Internet. A middle-aged subway commuter is seen with a complete stranger snoozing on his shoulder.
Issa Theil, 66, was riding the Q train after babysitting for his granddaughter when he found the man next to him nodding off. Subway rider Mike Braff snapped a quick picture on a smartphone.
"I was just so tickled that a New Yorker would let another New Yorker sleep on his shoulder," Braff told CBS 2's John Slattery.
Braff asked Theil if he wanted the man moved off of him, Theil said no.
"The guy's exhausted, he's put in a long day, and I said 'let him sleep,'" Theil said.
The man slept for about a half-hour.
"He was sort of dead weight on my shoulder. I was fine. I had a seat. It didn't bother me at all," Thiel said.
The photo has become an Internet sensation.
"I just think it was a sweet picture and encapsulates the New York that doesn't get shown a lot," he said.
For some, the picture has been reminiscent of a photo snapped of a police officer buying boots for a homeless man in Times Square. It's the type of kindness that Theil said would make his mother call him a "mensch."
Thiel said that when the passenger woke up he didn't seem to know where he had slept and that he would like to find out the man's name.
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