Man gives boots to homeless stranger on Chicago subway

CHICAGO - An ordinary subway ride turned extraordinary this month, when commuter Jessica Bell saw something on a Chicago subway she’ll never forget: a man giving his boots, right then and there, to a homeless man in need.

In a story posted to Facebook, Bell writes that she saw a man on the train wearing run-down sneakers on an ice-cold Chicago day. The man, who is homeless, would later say that he is originally from Louisiana. According to Bell, there was no way his shoes could survive winter in the windy city. That’s when she was another passenger, 38-year-old Maurice Anderson, take off his brand new $260 snow boots and give them to the homeless man. The man wore size 12 shoes, while Anderson wore 12 ½.

“If you’ve got 20 pairs of shoes, you can only wear one at a time,” said Anderson to the Good News Network. “I wished I had more pairs of socks.” 

Bell, who works with the homeless, says she’d never seen such a spontaneous act of selflessness.

Said Bell, “...I have never seen someone give the clothes off their back so unselfishly and so humbly.”