KDKA reports that Pittsburgh Police Officer Steven Harris recently responded to a call about an “unruly” man at the Greyhound station. "We get these calls from time to time and it's usually a homeless person annoying the customers. We offer to bring them to a shelter which they usually decline and then we inform them they have to move off the property or be arrested. But this guy was different. I tried understanding what he was saying but couldn't. But after a few minutes I realized he's trying to speak French but he's deaf. He doesn't read English so he couldn't even point to things that people there would understand. I had him write in French what his situation was, took a picture of it and texted it to a friend who speaks French".
The problem was the man is from Canada on a bus tour of the U.S. He stepped off to use the facilities and they didn't notice he was missing before they took off. All of his possessions including his phone was on that bus. He was unruly trying to explain the situation to the folks who worked there. Once the officer understood the problem rather than take the man to a facility or jail he asked how much a bus ticket back to NYC was because that's where his bus tour was spending the night. Steven forked over the $113 out of his own pocket and the man was on the next bus to be reunited with his belongings.
Officer Harris says he never even offered the man his address so he could possibly pay him back once he returns to Canada. “We’re supposed to be good men. Good men helping other good men. That’s it.”
Steven's boss Commander Tim Novosel. said "I know Officer Harris, I've known him before he actually left the department for a better paying job but came back because he loved the work downtown so much... He just thinks differently than most people."