Cheektowaga, N.Y. (WBEN) - When Cheektowaga Police were alerted to a glass break at the Pine Hill School on East Delevan Avenue Christmas Eve as the blizzard raged outside, officers were overwhelmed with calls and unable to investigate.
Jay Withey was stranded in the blinding and dangerous blizzard that was pummeling Buffalo at the time and had sought shelter in numerous homes along the street as the fuel in his truck was running low. He offered $500 to spend the night on the floor of nearby homes and was turned a way, only to return to his truck stranded along the road.
Withey was living the nightmare that hundreds of motorists were experiencing as they were stranded alone, in the dark, and in the bitter grip of a generational blizzard.
At one point during the long hours, another motorist in trouble, Mary, knocked on his window to alert Jay her van was running low on gas and she joined Jay in his truck to wait out the storm. But things got more and more desperate as fuel ran low in Jay's truck, they moved to Mary's, and Jay knew he needed to do something.
The snow was blinding and visibility zero at times, but Jay recalled, "Off to my left I could see a school." And that's all he needed to see.
Jay grabbed the brake pads that were on his front seat and struggled to get to the school through the waist deep snow and repeatedly smashed the window until it broke to gain entry into the building. With the alarm now sounding, Jay nervously and feverishly began to spread the word to Mary and other nearby motorists who were stranded, running low on fuel and slowly beginning to feel the bitter cold take hold. He located the code for the alarm on a paper and was able to silence it using a key pad.
"I walked till I cried," Jay told Tom Bauerle on WBEN Thursday as he walked through the snow to spread the word to as many people as he could. "It’s the only time in my life I actually thought I was going to die." He made a face mask from a hat in his truck to enable him to walk through the blinding snow.
Jay gathered 24 people and began to strategically and respectfully make the most of the school building to help everyone survive the storm. He used a table leg to pry open the cafeteria and kitchen. "I grabbed as much as I could," Withey recalled as he gave his fellow refugees from the storm, juices, cereal, fruit and water.
There was a freezer full of food, but Jay said he only took what he needed to get by and help those he gathered with him to ride out the storm. "You found something that’s helping you out," he said. "You want to give it as much respect as possible."
Jay is well aware of the haunting and growing death toll from the storm and is thankful he is safe and that 24 people could walk away from the storm and not be a statistic. "It was a Christmas miracle we could be together," he said.
By late Christmas Day, Jay and his fellow storm victims were rested and nourished and able to begin to leave the school, return to their vehicles and be on their way.
But, there was the matter of the feet of snow that had fallen and drifts that buried their vehicles while they were safely inside the nearby school.
Jay wasn't yet done with his good deeds and secured the school snow blower and worked to clear the vehicles of his newly found storm family, allowing them to safely leave and be on their way.
And Jay wasn't done just yet. There was more to do, in his mind. After all, he broke into a school by breaking a window and taking items from inside.
Jay found duct tape and cardboard and repaired the broken window as best he could. And he wrote a note.
"To whomever it may concern," the note read. "I'm terribly sorry about breaking the school window.....I had to do it to save everyone," the note included. "Merry Christmas," the note ended. You can read the full note above.
Cheektowaga Police eventually responded to the school and found the broken window and ultimately the note. They posted the note and surveillance images on social media to learn the identity of this Santa Claus who saved 24 people.
Bauerle asked the unassuming Jay about how he feels about Christmas now. "It has a totally different meaning now," Withey responded. "Honestly one of the most memorable Christmas’s of my life and none of them are family, he said.
"They are now."
