Oregon Man Walking 33 Miles to Work Given Car by Good Samaritan

After local Oregon news shared a story about a Prineville man who walked 33 miles to work, a Good Samaritan gave him a car. Eric Akers walked 33 miles to his job in Bend after his car broke down. With no transportation and no means to pay for transportation, he began looking for a ride but couldn’t find one.

Akers told the news outlet “I needed to get to work no matter what. So I woke up early — about 9:00 a.m. Started around 10:00 a.m. Left for Bend and it took about 6 1/2 hours, but I made the trek.” He then worked his eight hour shift, getting off around 1:30am and made the 6 ½ hour trek back home. After his story aired the news station said emails started pouring in from people who wanted to give him a hand.

Chris Arsenault and his wife were amongst the people inspired to help Eric. Arsenault said he was on a tractor when the story came across his phone. “We decided we have more cars than we need, so we wanted to give him this little Honda,” Arsenault said. When asked if he’d have walked 33 miles to get to work he said, “There’s no way I would have done it. That’s what inspired us to do this.”

Arsenault reached out to Akers and the two met. “He just handed me the paperwork for the car and told me it’s mine,” Akers said. “The kindness and generosity of the community has been overwhelming.” Arsenault said the car used to be his aunt’s and she took good care of it but it was just sitting on their property unused. He added that he hopes more people will be inspired to help their neighbors.