HAYWARD — A police stop of a man panhandling on Foothill Boulevard went viral this week after a sheriff’s deputy intending to ticket the homeless man instead helped uncover pieces of his past.

Alameda County Deputy Jacob Swalwell said he had seen Michael Myers for days at the same intersection at Mattox Road and warned him over his police address system to move along. Myers, 67, is a fixture near the ramps of Highway 238, where he panhandles to buy fast food and describes himself as “alone as a person could be.”

On Nov. 2, Swalwell decided to write Myers a ticket — until he realized he did not have an identification card, wondered why and then wanted to help.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Kelly, who shared the story to the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Facebook account Wednesday, said Myers had gone without a driver’s license for so long that DMV had purged him from their records. He had become an invisible man.

“We had to start over like he never existed,” Kelly said.

Driven by Swalwell to a local DMV office, Myers was initially refused an ID because he did not have three official documents proving his residency in Hayward, Kelly said. Swalwell didn’t give up and later signed an official letter from the sheriff’s office and got a second one from Valley Bible Church in Pleasanton.

But it was the third document — Myers’ birth certificate which Swalwell found in county records — that helped the man find out who he really is. Myers, who was adopted as a young child, learned that his biological mother was born in Kansas City, Missouri, that he was born at Highland Hospital in Oakland and that his first name is really Gordon, not Michael. Michael is his middle name.

“I’m surprised people have taken an interest in me because all my life people have been stepping away from me,” Myers said over the phone Wednesday. “I have this look that scares little kids. I wear this ugly mask for protection. If I didn’t look as crazy as I do people would try to take advantage of me.”

Myers said he was a truck driver until a car accident in the 1970s left him disabled and out of work.

“I think Deputy Swalwell was able to see through that mask,” Kelly said. “You spend two minutes with Michael and you can see he has a good heart.”

Swalwell, who is the brother of U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, said he learned a lesson.

“Each person has their own individual story,” Swalwell said. “You realize they are a person too. Mike has taught me a lot.

“This is the first chapter. I plan to get a resource to help him get disability service.”

Sgt. Kelly said Myers will continue to go by his nickname of “Mick” but his identification card now says “Gordon Michael Myers.”