Jay Withey: Mechanic who rescued 24 people in Buffalo blizzard awarded Super Bowl tickets for heroic deed
BUFFALO, NEW YORK: A local man, who saved 24 people during the deadly snowstorm in Buffalo in late December 2022, was awarded for his heroic actions on Friday, January 13, 2023. Jay Withey, a mechanic in the town of Cheektowaga, was gifted two tickets to the 2023 Super Bowl to be held in Glendale, Arizona, by NFL’s Buffalo Bills legend Thurman Thomas who was accompanied by his wife Patti.
The incident which earned Withey the moniker "Merry Christmas, Jay," took place on Christmas eve. According to CNN, Withey broke a school window to shelter himself and others from the blizzard after spending a night sleeping in his truck with two strangers to survive. Once inside, he went back out into the storm and brought people who needed help back inside, including seven elderly people who were stranded in their cars. Withey wrote an apology letter to the police, explaining why he broke into the school and took supplies. "To whom it may concern, I'm terribly sorry about breaking the school window and for breaking in the kitchen," he wrote in the note.
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He rescued 24 people from their cars during the Buffalo blizzard and sheltered them in a nearby school.@ThurmanThomas, @PThomas3434, and @BCBSWNY thanked Jay Withey for his acts of heroism with two tickets to Super Bowl LVII! ❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/ftHmXcRkzZ
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 13, 2023
"Got stuck at 8 pm. Friday and slept in my truck with two strangers just trying not to die. There were seven elderly people also stuck and out of fuel. I had to do it to save everyone and get them shelter and food and a bathroom. Merry Christmas," he concluded, signing the note with "Jay." The note and his pictures found much love online after it was shared by the Cheektowaga Police Department.
As a thank you for his heroic deed, the Buffalo Bills and the regional Highmark branch of insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield presented Withey with Super Bowl LVII tickets. The official Twitter account of Buffalo Bills posted a video on Friday, with former Bills running back Thomas and his wife Patti surprising Withey with the tickets. "We love you. We know what you did on Christmas Eve was very heroic and you are our hero, and the Bills and Highmark want to present you with these tickets to go watch the Super Bowl," Thomas acknowledged while presenting him with the tickets.
Withey, for his part, admitted that he is stunned at the number of people who have reached out to him, sharing he didn't expect the story to become as widespread as it did. "I can't believe the amount of reach-out it got," he said in the video, adding, "I mean, I got thank-you letters from Australia. I can't believe how far it got, but it was wild."