The BMW dealership in northeast England gets dozens of calls every day. But never one like this.
“My receptionist, Gina, answered the phone and she said ‘I’ve got a strange request here. This lady has fallen over and she can’t get up,” said sales manager Dang Vuong.
The 84-year-old woman had meant to call her granddaughter but was two digits off. And in this case, that wasn’t a bad thing.
“I thought, get her address and try to get there as fast as I could. Luckily it wasn’t that far away, ” Vuong said.
He raced to the house about 3 miles away. His receptionist stayed on the line.
“I checked the front door, it was unlocked,” Vuong, 34, told CNN.
The woman was lying on the ground in the living room, her face bloodied from a cut she suffered as she fell.
“She was quite panicked — especially being [with] a stranger in her house. I just quietly asked her if she was alright to see if she was hurt anywhere at all,” Vuong said.
The English thing to do
The salesman picked her up, placed her on a sofa and cleaned her face.
“I got a blanket and just kind of covered her legs up and made sure she was warm and that she was alright. I took the phone off her and rang her granddaughter.”
This time, it was the right number. The granddaughter, Sara Tweedy, answered.
“At first I was shocked as I didn’t know who was in my nanas house,” Tweedy said. “Then when Dang explained himself and what he had done, I was so happy he had made time to go and see her. I was so grateful.”
While waiting for the family to arrive, Vuong did what any good Englishman would do. He made her tea.
“In England, a cup of tea makes everything better.”
Over the shock
And everything is better.
Tweedy said her grandmother is ok — “over the shock now but doing great.”
“She really doesn’t know much about what happened. We keep reminding her about the lovely man that came to help her, ” Tweedy said.
Tweedy posted her thanks on Facebook garnering 39,000 likes so far and prompting what Vuong says is an overwhelming media response. There are interview requests from as far away as Dubai.
Closer to home, there’s an offer of a free pizza. But he’s not quick to accept gifts.
“I’ve grown up to not expect anything for free,” said the modest car salesman whose parents were born in Vietnam.
“It’s nice to help somebody because you never know, someone might have to give you a hand somewhere down the line.”
