By Laura Turbay
Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A man using a wheelchair was struggling to get across six lanes of traffic in an Arkansas city when help came in an unexpected way — from a spidery superhero who jumped into action from a red Jeep waiting at a light.
Christopher Hellenthal was still garbed in his Spider-Man costume from a superhero-themed event at a trampoline park where he works when he spotted the person in traffic Tuesday and ran out to help, declaring: “I got you.”
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Hellenthal swiftly rolled the person in the wheelchair to safety only seconds before the light changed and the rows of traffic advanced. The moment was captured by a street security camera in the city of Jonesboro and shared on social media by local police, who thanked Hellenthal for helping the man reach safety across the crosswalk.
“I had a bunch of adrenaline pumping through me” Hellenthal, 20, told The Associated Press, adding he had to act quickly in bustling midday traffic. “I was just kind of thinking, ‘I’m wearing this suit; it’s gonna be pretty funny.’”
After rolling the man safely across the road, a local route, Hellenthal bolted back into his Jeep blocking traffic “because the light turned green pretty fast.”
After the Jonesboro Police Department shared the video on Facebook, it became a sensation, quickly accumulating tens of thousands of ‘likes’ on the social media platform. One person commented about a missed opportunity to strike a “spidey pose.”
“Not in my 7 years in the department have I witnessed this,” said Sally Smith, a department spokesperson, referring to the video. Police did not identify the individual using the wheelchair by name.
Hellenthal, who lives in Lake City, east of Jonesboro, said he’s always been a Spider-Man fan. He said he even had the opportunity to meet the late Stan Lee, who revolutionized the comic book and helped make billions for Hollywood by introducing human frailties into Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man.
Packy Magel, a manager at Ultimate Air Trampoline Park who works with Hellenthal, said he recognized Hellenthal from the video despite his superhero getup.
It’s “very much like him to do something like that and very much like him to be still in costume,” Magel said.
