Jay Withey: Buffalo hero breaks into school to rescue over 2 dozen people stranded in deadly blizzard
BUFFALO, NEW YORK: New York police have reached out to a man who saved several lives when he found a shelter for people stranded in a deadly blizzard that swept the state over the last weekend. Jay Withey, in a selfless act after finding his way into Pine Hill School in search of shelter, went back and guided more than two dozen people to join him who were stuck in the winter storm like him. The authorities praised the man from Kenmore, New York, for his ‘heroic actions’
Cheektowaga Police Department after reviewing the case said, “When they were finally able to leave safely, you never would have known anyone was there. This group of amazing people took care of each other and the building they found shelter in." It was on Christmas Eve when Withey found himself stranded at East of Buffalo in Cheektowaga on Friday, December 24. With snow storm getting intense, and fuel running low, the 27-year-old man decided to break through a window of the nearby school, reports NBC News. He then went back out risking his life and came back with other stranded people on the streets, "My mission was just to keep going out and grabbing as many people as I can and to just keep going."
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Withey added, "I just kept walking, and I walked until I cried and I couldn't walk any further. I was just beat." In his heroic act, he responded, "I had to do it to save everyone and get them shelter and food and a bathroom.” The Cheektowaga Police Department (CPD) got to know about the break-in after a keyholder for the school was alarmed by the broken glass on Friday. An officer had to wait until the school session was over and then found a note from Withey that he left on the premises. It read, "I'm terribly sorry about breaking the school window and for breaking in the kitchen," which the department shared on its official Facebook page.
Withey revealed that he had slept in his truck ‘with two strangers’ before finally deciding to get into the school, and there were seven elderly people who were stuck and ran out of fuel too. In order to keep track of weather conditions, some of the people sheltering in school retrieved smart boards from classrooms, as per the department. It also shared a photograph of the group together from the night they were stuck inside the school. "Jay said they are all now like family and planning a SUMMER get together,” the department captioned the image.