Best Weekend Ever: Pittsburgh Samaritan treks to Chicago, performs five good deeds for strangers he found on Craigslist

Editor's Note: As the place where Chicagoans are sharing, rating and discovering local links, we see a lot of interesting stories here at the Windy Citizen. Some of them are so interesting that we hire a reporter to look into them. This is one of those stories, the almost too-good-to-be-true story of the Pittsburgh Samaritan. If you have information about any of the people here, drop us a comment below or send it to us at editor@windycitizen.com. If you found something interesting and local on the web, join us and then share it on the Windy Citizen.

On the eve of April Fools’ Day, a 29-year-old Pittsburgh man posted an ad on Craigslist Chicago offering “help with something this weekend” to any Chicagoans in need of an extra pair of hands for tasks small or large. His only request to those asking for help was that they “pay it forward” by doing a good deed to someone else.

The Samaritan included this screenshot of his Craigslist Ad in the video he posted to Youtube.

Considering the timing, it’s likely many wrote it off as a too-sincere-to-be-true April Fools’ gag, but it was no joke. The Steel City Samaritan was for real.

That next weekend, the Samaritan drove nearly 1,200 miles to Chicago and back, delivered a car battery, gave a lift to a stranger, dismantled a swing set, cleared out a demolished bathroom and delivered fresh clothing to a local charity that serves the homeless. And when he got back to Pittsburgh, Joe, which is not his real name, did what any sensible 21st-century person would do: he told his story on Youtube.

The Pittsburgh Samaritan posted this video to YouTube shortly after returning from Chicago.

And he did it all anonymously. While The Windy Citizen was able to reach the Samaritan through his friendinpittsburgh Youtube account and we spoke over the phone a handful of times, he did not wish to be named and offered up little in the way of background information beyond his age. Being identified would destroy “the power” of his feat, he said. Further clouding the event in mystery, the people he helped out that weekend sang the same tune when asked for comment.

Nevertheless, based on the video and what we pieced together from follow-up calls and e-mails, here is a look at the Five Labors of the Steel City Samaritan. Is he a hero? A naïve Pollyanna? A lunatic? You decide.

The Departure

Joe’s inbox started filling up just minutes after his ad went live, eventually receiving nearly 150 responses. This being Craigslist, more than a few confused “help” with “sexual charity,” he said.

The Samaritan included this screenshot of his inbox in the video he posted to Youtube.

Joe culled through the list, eventually settling on four people he knew he could help. That Friday, April 3, he drove west, armed only with fresh clothes, a box of hand tools, and the best of intentions.

The Samaritan took this shot of the trunk of his car full of tools and clothing before setting off for Chicago.

He also carried a serious case of butterflies-in-the-stomach that almost got the better of him, he said. No one at home knew what he was up to and he barely knew where he was going. “I didn’t know if I was coming back,” said Joe.

Good Deed #1: Resuscitate a dead van

Joe included this snapshot of the car battery he delivered in his Youtube video.

The Samaritan stayed in a hotel that night and set out Saturday morning after 8 a.m.. For his first mission, he delivered a Duralast Gold car battery (retail: $99) to an out-of-work man who was also out of wheels due to a dead-as-a-doornail battery in his van. Without the van, the man couldn’t drive to various side jobs he was taking to make ends meet, according to a request for help he posted to Craigslist that caught Joe’s eye and was quickly added to his list of missions.

Joe included this snapshot of the person asking for a car battery on Craigslist in his YouTube account.

Good Deed #2: Deliver a man to his new wheels in Des Plaines

Joe describes this as a snapshot of the truck waiting for its new owner in Des Plaines, Ill. in his video.

With one good deed under his belt, the Samaritan set about his second mission, giving a ride to someone who needed to get to Des Plaines to pick up a truck he bought on, you guessed it, Craigslist. The man in question had purchased the truck to help him clean up his home, which was damaged in Hurricane Ike a year ago, he said. Not having lived in the Chicago area in a while, the man turned to Craigslist find help. After exchanging a few e-mails with Joe, their meeting was set.

Was he worried about taking a ride from the “pay it forward” guy?

"I got a pretty good idea he was just a straight-shooter guy," said the man, who also was not comfortable using his full name.

Good Deed #3: Clear out a demolished Chicago bathroom

Joe says this is an image of the bathroom he helped clear out for his third mission in Chicago.

After getting something to eat, the Samaritan set off on his third and last visit of the day: removing debris from a bathroom being remodeled. Unlike the earlier tasks, which were set up in advance over the internet, this one came to Joe on his cell phone after he left for Chicago. What sold him on adding it to his portfolio was learning that the person asking for help was himself helping another friend who owned the bathroom.

Good Deed #4 (w/ surprise team-up): Tear down a swing set in Park Ridge

This image appears in Joe's video, depicting the swing set he was asked to tear down in Park Ridge.

Day two began with a little child's play as the Samaritan’s mission was to tear down an old wooden swing set. With his toolbox in tow, it seemed like a straightforward job. But it became even easier when the grateful truck owner from mission two decided to join up and help Joe out on the job. Together the two men, joined by the owner of the swing set and a friend of hers, pulled it down in about an hour and a half.

The man with the new truck from mission two turned up to assist Joe with mission #4 though they used a different truck to haul away the swing set.

Good Deed #5: Clothe the homeless

Joe took this photo of participants in the April 5 Chicago Homeless Sandwich Run, organizing food and clothing to hand out across Chicago .

With his weekend almost over, the Samaritan had one last stop to make, at the Chicago Homeless Sandwich Run, which delivers sandwiches, coffee, clothing and other personal items to over 800 homeless people every Sunday. Joe donated the old clothing he brought with him from Pittsburgh, including a 2004 Steelers Division Champion sweatshirt and what looks in the video like a black leather Soprano’s jacket.

The clothing Joe brought to Chicago to donate to the Chicago Homeless Sandwhich run.

Heading Home

His five labors complete, the Pittsburgh Samaritan drove back east. Everything went according to plan, he said, calling the experience the “best weekend” of his life.

The law of pay it forward is simple; you do a favor for someone, expecting nothing in return, and that person would in turn do a favor for another, and so on. The Pittsburgh Samaritan set out on his journey, allowing fate to choose his destinations, to show that “sometimes you have to go a mile to get people to walk an inch.” At a time when the economy is in the pits, mass shootings are rampant and unemployment lines are out the door, getting a little break doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

If you have more information about the Pittsburgh Samaritan, send it our way at mailto:editor@windycitizen.com