JACKSON COUNTY (WWJ) - A Jackson County sheriff's sergeant is being recognized for his efforts to help a blind man stranded in Michigan hotel after falling victim to a potential scam last week.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office recounted the story on social media that began when the manager of Americas Best Value Inn & Suites, just north of Jackson, called authorities on March 20 about a guest in need of help.
Sgt. Tom Freeman, 37-year-old member of the Jackson Special Response Team, took the call and discovered the guest, a blind Ohio native, had been stranded in Jackson County for several days after traveling from Little Rock, Arkansas to meet up with online friends.
The friends, Freeman said, had apparently lured the blind man -- who remains unidentified to protect his privacy -- over 800 miles under the false promise of helping him with financial issues.
Only, when the man arrived, no one came to get him.
“He loads up on a bus and comes all the way up here and nobody would answer him. They wouldn’t respond to his messages,” Freeman told Mlive. “He felt it was all a set up or a scam.”
To complicate matters, the man had all of his things stolen as he slept at the bus stop, including his phone and his wallet.
Jackson Police Department officers found lodging for the man at America's Best through St. Vincent de Paul charity program and he stayed there for several more days before the hotel manager reached out to deputies.
When Freeman spoke to the man, he said he gone two days without eating, he had no money and he didn't know what to do. The man mentioned he had family members in Ohio that would be able to help, but without his phone, he had no way to reach them.
That's when the deputy took the man to the bus station, purchased a $60 bus ticket to Lima, Ohio and bought him food and water for trip.
“He was elated. He was like ‘You’d buy me a ticket?’ and I was like ‘Yeah, man, absolutely,” Freeman told WILX.
The deputy added that the bus driver, who is a retired police officer from Maryland, promised to make sure the man connected with his family once they arrived in Ohio.
The story would have ended there, if it weren't for another sergeant stumbling across the receipt for the man's one-way bus ticket on Freeman's computer screen.
Freeman said he was called away from his desk when Sgt. Bryan Huttenlocker came in to cover for him. When he returned, his coworker asked him about it and Freeman told the story.
“The last thing Tom Freeman would want is for anybody to know about it,” Huttenlocker told WILX.
Jackson County Sheriff Gary Schuette agreed, saying that for the men and woman in uniform, stories like Freeman's happen frequently although they often go unnoticed by the community.
“They’re really humble about the things they do for people,” Schuette said via WILX. “If I said every deputy every day, I think that would be an understatement. It’s important for everyone to understand who the true hero is here. That’s Sergeant Freeman.”