ELIZABETH -- Lee Parker thought he was just lucky Sunday when he stumbled upon a nice backpack left on top of a garbage can, steps from the Elizabeth train station.

"It was a nice one," he said. "Nice enough for me to have in my possession."

But once Parker, a 50-year-old lifetime resident of Elizabeth who spends his days not knowing where he'll sleep at night, pulled one of the items out of the 30-to 40-pound backpack, he said he knew something wasn't right.

"When I went to discard the items in the backpack, it seemed odd," Parker said. "I thought they were decorated candles, but no decorated candles have wires."

"It was a strange item," he said. "It was shiny."

Parker and Ivan White, also of Elizabeth, were out purchasing beer after watching the Sunday football games. Parker, a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, wanted to celebrate his team's 2-0 start to the season.

While White was paying for the beer, Parker said he noticed the backpack.

"When we figured out what it was, Ivan made me aware of what's been going on in different places," Parker said. "So right there I knew that this is one of those incidents not to take lightly at all. So that's why we made the authorities aware."

The men came across a backpack near the train station at North Broad Street and Julian Place around 8 p.m. Sunday night, a day after bombs went off in Seaside Park and in New York City -- the latter incident leaving 29 people hurt.

The garbage can was located about 500 feet from a local pub, Willy's Place, close enough to have had tragic consequences if the bombs had gone off, Mayor Christian Bollwage said.

"If that pub was crowded and there was a lot of people there, it could have severely injured, killed and maimed many, many people," Bollwage previously told reporters at the scene.

One of the devices was later unintentionally detonated by a bomb-squad robot.

Since his good deed with his friend White, Be the Change NJ, which is part of Kean University, has set Parker up an efficiency at a local hotel, clothes and food. He also got a "nice" new backpack as a donation from local resident Janette Padlo.

A local nonprofit that does community outreach and helps local homeless also started a GoFundMe account as a reward for the two.

"We wanted to ensure that these two good Samaritans -- no, heroes -- were rewarded for their action," Don Goncalves said.

As of Wednesday morning, the page has raised close to $13,000. It had less than $900 Tuesday night.

Hours later after the bomb exploded in Elizabeth, 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami, was caught after in a shootout with police in Linden. Two officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the arrest and Rahami is charged with attempting to kill five police officers.

Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig. Find NJ.com on Facebook.