Richard climbing Brittany Smith’s steps – credit, Smith via GoFundME
A woman who had a DoorDash order brought to her house was shocked to see an old man on her doorbell camera.
Inspired to help, she set up a GoFundMe, which raised $940,000 to allow the man to retire.
It was just another weekday in Manchester, Tennessee, when Brittany Smith heard the doorbell ring.
Switching on her phone’s Ring doorbell camera app, she was surprised to see an elderly man she would later learn was named Richard, ascending to her porch in a red flannel shirt and khakis.
It could have been called a DoorDawdle order, as in his old age he could hardly ‘dash’ up the steps to her front door, and needed the handrailing for support.
“My daughter’s dad is a quadriplegic, so he often has things sent to the house because he can’t physically go get them,” Smith said, explaining why Richard arrived at their house that day. “This poor guy is struggling to get up my stairs to deliver my very capable daughter her Starbucks.”
Calling her daughter’s father, Smith asked to leave a bigger tip, but the father replied the opportunity through the DoorDash app to do so was gone. Meanwhile, she posted the video footage from the Ring camera on TikTok on other social media platforms, wondering if anyone in Manchester knew who the old man was.
A Facebook user recognized him as Richard and got in contact with Smith to reveal his identity and address. Driving over, Smith offered him a $200 tip, which would have made the story beautiful on its own, but it got even sweeter than the Starbucks Richard had delivered.
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At his house, Richard explained that his wife lost her job and that the two of them quickly lost their savings paying for monthly expenses and a very costly medication she was taking. Richard took the DoorDash gig to try and supplement their income.
That’s when Smith set up the GoFundMe, with the aim of “helping Richard go back into retirement!”
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With the footage from the Ring camera going viral, the GoFundMe benefited tremendously, and raised almost $1 million from an incredible 32,000 donations.
“I had no idea that I was going to gain that much traction,” Smith told the UK’s Independent. “Richard said he’s not slept in two days because he can’t quit watching the GoFundMe.”
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