A 71-year-old veteran who volunteers his time shuttling people to medical appointments was acting as a good Samaritan when he stopped his van on a road in Shirley on Tuesday morning and offered a woman running by herself a bottle of water, Shirley police said Thursday.

“Nothing more than that,’’ Shirley Police Chief Thomas Goulden told reporters. “It was a good Samaritan stopping because he thought the woman could use a bottle of water because she was jogging on a hot day.”

The woman contacted police after the interaction, and Goulden later issued a townwide alert asking for the public for information about a green van.