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Heroic and humble FOX weatherman saves woman from drowning in her car during hurricane

She was about to drown in her car.

via FOX News

Bob Van Dillen saves woman stranded in her car.

In the 5 days since Hurricane Helene made landfall on the southeastern coast of the U.S., over 120 people have died from the tremendous winds and flooding. Although the devastation has been tragic, there have also been beautiful acts of heroism to give us all a glimmer of hope in the wake of destruction.

On Friday, September 27, FOX Weather Meteorologist Bob Van Dillen was broadcasting from Peach Tree Creek in Atlanta, Georgia. He and his crew heard a woman screaming while doing a live TV set up in the pre-dawn hours. She had driven into a flooded area and her car was rapidly filling with water.

"I just put the microphone down and called 911," he told Fox Weather. "I know that those guys are swamped, so we waited about five minutes. She was getting panicked a little bit more because the water was coming up a little bit higher."

After realizing the emergency services probably wouldn’t make it in time. He took matters into his own hands and waded into the chest-deep water to help the woman escape her car. "She was in there, she was still strapped into her car and the water was actually rising and getting up into the car itself, so she was about, almost neck deep submerged in her own car,” Van DIllen later told FOX News.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"She would have drowned," host Janice Dean said.

"You know, I don’t know," Van Dillen humbly replied. "I told her, ‘OK, undo your seatbelt,’ she undid her seatbelt. I said, ‘Let me have your phone, let me have your bags,’ then put [her] on my back and we walked in… she’s fine, she was in shock," Van Dillen said. The 6-foot-1 weatherman then carried her back through the water to safety.

When the woman reached safety, Van Dillen gave her a warm shirt and put her in a car while she waited for a firetruck and her husband to arrive. When the husband arrived at the rescue scene, he hugged Van Dillen, shook his hand and thanked him repeatedly.

Van Dillen's crew caught the heroic deed on tape, but the weatherman didn’t want to be the center of attention, so he kept trying to refocus the story on the storm's devastation.

"Her husband picked her up, and she's all good," Van Dillen said. "But the story now turns not on me, but it turns to how much flooding we've seen. I mean … amazing amounts coming in."

He even downplayed the bravery of his rescue. "You know how it is. I was concerned that one, maybe there was a nice swift current, but the current really wasn’t that bad. But, the water temperature I was afraid of, too. The water temperature is probably about 80 [degrees]. So, all of those things were working pretty nicely, so, that being said, the water came up to about my chest," Van Dillen told Fox News.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Initial reports showed that the first 3 days of the hurricane were the wettest in Atlanta in 104 years and a flash flood emergency warning was declared for the first time in the city’s history. George Governor Brian Kemp says that Helene’s damage will far exceed Hurricane Michael's in 2018. "It has been unlike any other storm I think we've ever faced because of the size of the wind field that this storm brought through and how it literally is affecting 159 counties, not just 20 or 30 counties in south Georgia," Kemp said according to Fox 5 Atlanta.

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A man called 911, then his 5-year-old picked up the phone. Life-saving adorableness ensued

"I don't know what I'm gonna wear, but... he really needs oxygen, real fast."

jeffsaks123/YouTube

Brace yourselves, folks, because this is almost too friggin' adorable to handle.

A 911 call can be a scary thing, and an emergency call from a dad having chest pains and trouble breathing is no exception. But thankfully, an exchange between that dad's 5-year-old daughter and 911 dispatcher Jason Bonham turned out to be more humor than horror. If you missed hearing the recording that has repeatedly gone viral since 2010, you have to hear it now. It's perfectly timeless.


When an Indiana dad used his cell phone to called 911 and couldn't talk, his daughter Savannah picked up the phone. Remaining remarkably calm, cool, and collected, the articulate 5-year-old expertly answered Bonham's questions—and added her own hilarious commentary as well.

At Bonham's request, she made sure the front door was unlocked so the emergency crew could get in. She told him about their dog, Lou Lou, who was "small" and "barks a lot," but was "friendly." She consoled her dad—who may have been in the middle of a heart attack—with "Don't worry, Dad," and "Stay calm, Dad." She also kept the dispatcher up to speed on what was happening, repeatedly saying, "So far, so good."

But the pièce de résistance was when Savannah told Bonham that she and her dad were in their "jammies" so she'd have to change. "I don't know what I'm gonna wear, but...he really needs oxygen, real fast."

Five. Years. Old. This kid is seriously something else. Watch:

Little girl calls 911 - Adorable - "He can't hardly breathe"youtu.be

Bonham said he was surprised by how Savannah handled the call. "Most people when you talk to them, they're hysterical," he told Eyewitness News. "Every time I've listened to it it's amazing. She's just a little person."

Thankfully, despite the scare, everything turned out fine for Savannah's dad. When the story went viral, her mom posted on Facebook, "We are so grateful & blessed that Savannah's 911 call is still being circulated. It makes the whole entire night worth while. The more awareness it brings & the more adults that teach children what to do the better!"

Well done teaching that kiddo, mom and dad. She was truly amazing.


This article originally appeared on 5.7.21

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Pizza guy whose quick thinking saved a woman's life gets the reward of a lifetime

He saw her trapped in her own home, begging for help.

via WITI Milwaukee

Joey Grundl, Milwaukee pizza guy.

Joey Grundl, who was working as a pizza delivery driver for a Domino's Pizza in Waldo, Wisconsin, was hailed as a hero for noticing a kidnapped woman's subtle cry for help. It's a timeless story that continues to resonate with people today.

Back in 2018, the delivery man was sent to a woman's house to deliver a pie when her ex-boyfriend, Dean Hoffman, opened the door. Grundl looked over his shoulder and saw a middle-aged woman with a black eye standing behind Hoffman. She appeared to be mouthing the words: "Call the police."

"I gave him his pizza and then I noticed behind him was his girlfriend," Grundl told WITI Milwaukee. "She pointed to a black eye that was quite visible. She mouthed the words, 'Call the police.'"

domestic abuse, celebrity, community, kidnapped

The Dean Hoffmann mugshot.

via WITI Milwaukee

When Grundl got back to his delivery car, he called the police. When the police arrived at the home, Hoffmann tried to block the door, but eventually let the police into the woman's home.

After seeing the battered woman, Hoffmann was arrested and she was taken to the hospital for her wounds.

Earlier in the day, Hoffman arrived at the house without her permission and tried to convince her to get back into a relationship with him. He then punched her in the face and hog tied her with a vacuum power cord.

"If you love me, you will let me go," she pleaded, but he reportedly replied, "You know I can't do that." He also threatened to shoot both of them with a .22 caliber firearm he kept in his car. The woman later told authorities that she feared for her life.

An alert pizza delivery driver helped save a woman from her abusive ex-boyfriend, police say. A 55-year-old Grafton man now faces several counts of domestic ...

A day later, Grundl was seen on TV wearing a hoodie from Taylor Swift's "Reputation Tour" and her fans quickly jumped into action, tagging Swift in photos of the hero. Grundl already had tickets to go to an upcoming Swift concert in Arlington, Wisconsin, but when Swift learned of the story, she arranged to meet Grundl backstage.

"She … she knew who I was," Grundl jokingly tweeted after the concert. "I'm thoroughly convinced Taylor gave me a cold."

"This has been one of the most exciting weeks of my life," Grundl said. "I'm legitimately getting emotional and I almost never get like this. But as the likely most memorable week of my entire life comes to an end … I guess I can really say … I'm doing better than I ever was."


This story originally appeared on 10.4.18

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When a 911 operator got a call for a 'large pizza' he quickly realized something was very wrong

At first he thought it was a prank.

via Matt / Flickr

In 2020, an Oregon, Ohio police dispatcher and the daughter of a domestic abuse victim were lauded for their response to a violent situation. Dispatcher Tim Teneyck was manning the phone lines when a curious call came in that he first assumed was a prank.

"I would like to order a pizza," the 911 caller said, giving a residential address.

"You called 911 to order a pizza?" a bemused Teneyck asked. "This is the wrong number to call for a pizza."

"No, no, no, no, you're not understanding," the woman insisted.

"I'm getting you now," Teneyck quickly replied. "We'll get 'em going."

"Is the other guy still there?" Teneyck asked

"I need a large pizza," the woman said.

"How about medical, do you need medical?" Teneyck replied. "No," the woman replied.

"With pepperoni," the woman continued.

"We'll get 'em going," Teneyck stated before asking if the woman can stay on the phone.

"No," the woman replied before the call ends.


Why This Woman Called 911 to Order Pizzawww.youtube.com


Teneyck realized she needed emergency assistance because of her persistence. "She stuck right to it," he told Inside Edition. "I knew there was something else going on."

The dispatcher told police to go to the house with their sirens off saying "there's domestic violence going on." When police arrived, they saw the call was from a young woman whose mother was assaulted by her boyfriend, Simon Lopez.

According to the young woman, Lopez came home drunk saying he was going to "beat her ass" before punching her and throwing her into a wall.

"I was thinking to myself 'I need to call 911 but how do I get him to stay in the house so he will be taken out in handcuffs' and I just thought, 'Pizza!'" the woman told Inside Edition.

Simon Lopez, 56, was arrested by police and charged with misdemeanor domestic violence. Lopez also had a warrant out for failure to appear.

"I thank him from the bottom of my heart," the woman said of Teneyck.

via Inside Edition / YouTube

The next day, Oregon Police Chief Mike Navarre praised Teneyck as well.

"He utilized his training and his experience to recognize that a woman was in distress," Navarre told NBC News. "We have no way of knowing what would have happened if she didn't get through."

After the incident, the dispatcher and police chief learned that some support groups teach people to report domestic violence surreptitiously to 911 by pretending to order Chinese food or pizza.

When the operator says "you have the wrong number" the person reporting the violence is supposed to say, "no."

Navarre is using the call to train other dispatchers on how to realize if someone is in trouble and can't express it in words.

"A good dispatcher is going to recognize that this is a person who wants to talk and needs help. That is exactly what happened here," he said. "Some dispatchers might hang up on this person, but it's worth a try to give it your best shot. That's what she did, and it worked out extremely well."

To get support, resources, and hope for anyone affected by domestic violence in the U.S. call 1.800.799-SAFE (7233).


This article originally appeared on 11.19.20
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