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10th May 2023
10:04am BST
Footage has captured the moment a man leaving a job interview managed to stop a pram that was rolling into oncoming traffic with a baby in it.
Ron Nessman, who has experienced homelessness and unemployment for years, was leaving a job interview at an Applebee's restaurant in California when he saw a baby in a pram rolling into the road.
Without hesitation, he sprinted into the street, stopped the runaway pram, and saved the child. And, as if the universe was rewarding him for his heroism, he then went on to bag the job at the restaurant - his first in years.
Speaking to local news station KOVR-TV, he said: “I didn’t even have time to think about it. You just react.”
After spending roughly eight years without a home, Nessman had been living with his sister in recent months and was looking for work. On May 1, he had been at the Applebee's to interview for a position washing dishes at the restaurant.
After the interview, he had been sat waiting on a bench outside when he spotted the emergency unfolding nearby.
The baby's great aunt had stopped her car on the driveway of a nearby car wash and had placed her great nephew in the pram. Whilst she was sorting something in the back seat, strong winds blew the pram down the slight slope, sending it careering towards the busy road.
As the woman desperately tried to stop the pram she fell over and struggled to get back up, leaving her helpless.
Nessman immediately sprinted into action, running to the pram and stopping it just before it went into the road. Surveillance footage from the car wash captured the dramatic scene unfold.
“I said, you know, ‘I got it!’ Because I felt so bad for the lady. I got nephews and nieces. I can imagine something like that [happening]," Nessman told KOVR.
“I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I did nothing, of course. I’m just glad I realized it and was on it.”
His heroic actions have been widely praised and shared on social media, capturing headlines across the US. Nessman told California news station KNSD that relatives as far away as Florida and Missouri had seen the footage.
The former big rig truck explained to KOVR that he had started struggling with homelessness after the unexpected death of his girlfriend left him grief-stricken, adding that he had moved to California to reconnect with family.
“It was sudden and I didn’t want to do anything,” Nessman said.
Applebee's went on to hire him, but he has since received other job offers, including painting and driving big rigs again.
But Nessman said he was simply grateful to Applebee's for the "opportunity" they'd given him with the job offer.
“I’ll earn everything I get so – with that in mind, you know – I appreciate the opportunity that Applebee’s has given me,” he told KNSD. “It’s really cool.”
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