A hero is someone who takes action in a tricky situation, even if it doesn’t concern him. A hero will come to the aid of a stranger, and he will do everything he can to ensure justice is served. When this young girl was in distress, she needed a hero – instead, she got four.
Kelsey Straeter’s daughter was in desperate need of help. She was drunk, scared, and stuck in a terrible situation. She was with a man who had the worst of intentions for her. Fortunately, she was not alone.
Four skateboarders in Calgary, Alberta, witnessed a well-dressed man carrying the 15-year-old girl on his shoulder through a parking garage. They were immediately suspicious. These young men decided to take action. Their names were Arnaud Nimenya, Carsyn Wright, James Hielema, and Starlyn Rivas-Perez.
They approached the man and asked him what he was doing. He told them that he was trying to call the girl’s father to pick her up. They wanted to believe his story, but something wasn’t right.
They followed the man, keeping their distance but making sure the girl was okay. She was not, not at all. He took her into a nearby stairwell and assaulted her.
The skateboarders did not hesitate for a moment. Three of them chased after the predator, while one stayed behind to comfort the distraught girl. The heroes caught the assailant and restrained him until the police arrived.
This brave action took a lot of courage. “You don’t want to really think of the worst in somebody like that,” one explained after the incident was all over. “You don’t want the situation to be real, so you just brush it off and hope for the best.” Kelsey thanks her lucky stars every night that these boys did the exact opposite.
In a heart-wrenching letter to the skateboarders, Kelsey thanked them for their heroic actions. “You can’t take away what happened to her,” the grateful mother wrote, “but you can show her that…for every group of men who will stand around gawking at a man raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster and doing NOTHING, there is a group of men who will stop it in its tracks and chase down that pervert until he’s restrained by the cops and justice is served.”
Kelsey knew that the damage done to her daughter was irreversible, but she was so relieved that the rapist had gotten what he deserved.
“Thank you for doing the right thing,” Kelsey said, “being a protector for the defenseless, and for being the voice that said ‘NO’ when hers was not loud enough.”
These boys are proof that you don’t need a cape or any superpowers to be a hero. All you need is fierce dedication to doing what is right.
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