Tire shop employees stop rush hour traffic to help ducklings

Stuck in traffic on Patton Avenue Thursday? Your rush hour delay was not in vain, at least this once.

Traffic came to a standstill around 5 p.m. as Grahm Gallupe and Michael Rhodarmer, an assistant manager and mechanic respectively at Mr. Tire in West Asheville, helped a small family of ducklings and their mama make their way across one of the city's busiest thoroughfares.

"I was helping a customer and just happened to glance over and see this little black object walking," Gallupe said Thursday, "Or, waddling, I guess, as fast as a baby duckling can move, near the road."

"So obviously I dropped everything and just went out and stopped cars on Patton."

Gallupe and Rhodarmer made their way out onto the six-lane highway and started stopping cars near an intersection, Gallupe said. The duck pedestrians were trapped on the median, with three lanes of heavy traffic in both directions.

"People actually slowed down pretty easily," he said. "At one point the mom actually tried to turn around and go the other direction, but Michael kind of redirected her and they made their way across."

The moment was captured by a driver, Marsha Norton Whitt, who posted it to a West Asheville Facebook page with the caption, "Whoever these two men are that literally stopped traffic on Patton Avenue to save this little family of ducks are awesome! We all know that at 5 o’clock traffic is crazy and some people just wouldn’t care and most definitely would not step out in traffic! Thank goodness there is still good people in the world."

Within an hour, the photo had been liked or shared more than a thousand times, with the two men hailed as West Asheville heroes.

Gallupe said the duck family was enjoying the rest of their afternoon in a creek behind to shop, safe and sound.

"It was a relief to see them safe back there, splashing and hanging out."