Teen Steps In To Save 87-Year-Old Woman Seen Wandering On Staten Island Expressway
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A teenager who one day wants to be one of New York's Finest stepped in to help an elderly woman in need after he spotted her wandering alone on a busy city highway.
17-year-old Eric Roman makes it no secret he wants to be a police officer when he grows up.
"You've got NYPD, Port Authority, everything here," he told CBS2's Ali Bauman.
Roman collects badges and carries around a first aid kit, but he's already considered a hero after he pulled over on the Staten Island Expressway Saturday afternoon to help a woman walking along the Exit 12 off ramp.
"Literally right next to the shoulder," he said. "She looked very confused. She looked like she was in need."
87-year-old Laura Farr says she was cold and confused.
"My body was shaking," she recalled. "He says 'sit down, I don't want you to fall'."
Farr was trying to visit her grandchildren. They only live a few blocks away and she often walks there alone, but on this day someone gave her a ride. When she got out of the car, she was disoriented and kept walking.
Her daughter estimates she walked two miles on foot before anyone asked if she needed help. Luckily, Roman stepped up.
"I wasn't just going to let her drive by and let something happen," he said.
Roman called an ambulance, but when it arrived Farr was afraid to get in. The high school senior, 70 years her junior, promised to meet Farr at the hospital.
"I'll hold your hand when you go in the ambulance," he told her. "Just let them take you, check you out."
He kept his word.
"When he came in he called her name and she goes 'that's the boy. That's the boy who helped me'," Farr's daughter, Roselyn Abraham, said.
Farr said she was so happy, and Roman continues making her smile with a promise to continue keeping her safe.
