You don’t need to win medals of gallantry in a war to be called a hero.
Even things as little as rescuing a bird in the time of need can show the heroic side of your character.
If you’re not convinced, you will be, after reading this rescue story from Northern Utah.
It all started when the staff at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center received a strange call from someone who ‘had a few too many’ drinks. The subject of the call was a baby lesser goldfinch the man had discovered on the yard, struggling for life.
Just an hour after, the bird reached the sanctuary in an Uber, all by itself.
Staff at the facility discovered later that the ‘hero,’ a married dad of two named Tim Crowley, called the Uber to the place he was having his little party in Clinton as he was too drunk to drive the bird himself.
Director of the facility Dalyn Marthaler said the bird, aged two weeks, was malnourished, dehydrated, and not in a good shape when they received it.
The very next day, Marthaler took to Facebook to share the unique rescue story of the bird, which they named ‘Peter Uber,’ or ‘Petey.’
“Another FIRST you WILL NOT BELIEVE!!! What do you do when you find a sick, injured or orphaned wild animal, but you’ve ‘had a few too many?’ WELL, this rescuer called an UBER driver!” he wrote.
“NO, seriously, this little orphaned Lesser Goldfinch was the sole occupant of an Uber vehicle for a ride to WRCNU yesterday. While we feel we’ve seen it all and can’t be amazed by anything, there is always SOMEONE out there to prove us wrong.
“Thank you to the rescuer who helped this little one get the care it needed in a timely manner and thank you for keeping yourself safe and others on the road safe as well!”
Crowley, the heroic guy behind the rescue, later shared a detailed account of his kind act with Fox 13 in an interview.
He explained that he was drinking with a friend at his neighbor’s home when he noticed the small bird falling from a tree. As he and his friends were heavily drunk, driving the bird to a sanctuary was not an option.
“At first it was a joke, like, ‘Hey, maybe we should just call Uber!’” he told Fox 13. “Then we were like, ‘No, really. Why not? We’re paying them.’”
When they ordered an Uber, the first driver assigned to them canceled the ride after learning about the unusual passenger.
The second Uber driver they got was Christy Guynn who happily agreed to take the feathered guy to the vet.
Guynn placed the tiny passenger in a box lined with leaves to keep it comfortable and set off for the Northern Utah Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.
According to the driver, Petey was an ideal passenger who behaved great throughout the 25 minutes’ drive from the location.
“He wasn’t rowdy, he just wanted to eat,” told the kind driver. “It was his first Uber ride – and probably his only Uber ride.”
While on the way, Guynn noticed that the bird was feeling cold so she turned off the air conditioner to make it feel comfortable. She said that the tiny passenger chirped to thank her for doing so.
Marthaler said if the bird hadn’t got the medical assistance in time, it would have died. Petey will soon be set free in the wild.