It began as a distinctly depressing story.

Ronald Leggatt, a homeless man in New Jersey found scrounging for lottery tickets, was paid $5 – that’s £3.50 – by a teenager to dump hot coffee over his own head. The ‘prankster’ then reportedly uploaded a video of the incident to a website for others to watch.

The video was shared some 2,000 times and prompted a police investigation, though no charges were brought against the perpetrator.


Thankfully, the story did not end there.

A local man, 34-year-old Ari Boyer, said, simply, that ‘I don’t like to see people hurt’ and offered Mr Leggatt a haircut, new clothes and a place to stay during the impending blizzard.



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And Mr Leggatt accepted.

‘This is the best day of my life!’ he said as he left the barbershop.

The next stop was WalMart, and then a motel.

Mr Leggatt said later that Mr Boyer – ‘my best buddy’ – made him ‘feel like a human being again’.

Another local resident set up a GoFundMe page entitled ‘Lakewood’s apology to Ronald Leggatt’ where $1,550 has so far been raised for central New Jersey’s homeless.

And then, just to tie the whole episode neatly together, the prankster himself came forward, apologised, and offered Mr Leggatt $20.

He also offered to pour coffee over his own head but of course, Mr Leggatt declined.

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