fter Officer Lawrence DePrimo knelt beside a barefoot man on a
bitterly cold November night in Times Square, giving him a pair of
boots, a photo of his random act of good will quickly took on a
life on its own —
becoming a symbol for a million acts of kindness that go unnoticed
every day and a reminder that even in this tough, often anonymous
city, people can still look out for one another.
Officer DePrimo was celebrated on front pages and morning talk
shows, the Police Department came away with a burnished image and
millions got a smile from a nice story.
But what of the shoeless man?
For days, his bare feet — blistered and battered — were well known.
Yet precise details about him proved elusive.
His name is Jeffrey Hillman, and on Sunday night, he was once again
wandering the streets — this time on the Upper West Side — with no
shoes.
The $100 pair of boots that Officer DePrimo had bought for him at a
Skechers store on Nov. 14 were nowhere to be seen.
“Those shoes are hidden. They are worth a lot of money,” Mr.
Hillman said in an interview on Broadway in the 70s. “I could lose
my life.”
Mr. Hillman, 54,
was by turns aggrieved, grateful and taken aback by all the
attention that had come his way — even as he struggled to figure
out what to do about it.
“I was put on
YouTube, I was put on everything without permission. What do I
get?” he said. “This went around the world, and I want a piece of
the pie.”
He did not
recall the photo being taken but remembered well the gift from
Officer DePrimo. “I appreciate what the officer did, don’t get me
wrong,” he said. “I wish there were more people like him in the
world.”
At another point
he said: “I want to thank everyone that got onto this thing. I want
to thank them from the bottom of my heart. It meant a lot to me.
And to the officer, first and foremost.”
Mr. Hillman said
he came to New York about a decade ago and had been on the streets
most of that time. He moves about Manhattan, he said, not
frequenting any particular neighborhood. On Sunday, he was making
his way from the Upper West Side to Times Square.
If it rained, he
added, he might seek refuge on a train.
Mr. Hillman said
he was from South Plainfield, N.J. He said he joined the Army in
1978 and served as a “food service specialist” in the United States
and Germany.
He produced a
worn veteran’s identification card that confirmed his service.
Mr. Hillman said
that he was honorably discharged after five years and that before
he became homeless he worked in kitchens in New Jersey.
He has two
children — Nikita, 22, and Jeffrey, 24 — but has had little contact
with them since a visit three years ago, Mr. Hillman said.
He was reluctant
to talk about how he ended up on the streets, staring blankly ahead
when asked how his life went off course.
After a long
pause, he shook his head and said, “I don’t know.”
Since Mr.
Hillman’s bare feet became famous, other people reported seeing him
without shoes — one even after Officer DePrimo’s gift — and one
woman said she had bought him a pair of shoes a year ago. Whatever
the case, Mr. Hillman seemed accustomed to walking the pavement
shoeless.
He was
panhandling on Sunday night and carried a cup with a few coins
inside.
The story seemed
to dominate the city’s attention late last week. Speaking of
Officer DePrimo on his radio program last week, Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg said, “That’s what they’re trained to do — help
people.”
Commissioner
Raymond W. Kelly expressed his appreciation by giving Officer
DePrimo a pair of department
cuff links during a private meeting on Thursday.
Officer DePrimo,
25, who lives with his parents in Suffolk County, rocketed to
national attention after the Police Department posted the photo of
him and Mr. Hillman, taken by an Arizona tourist, on its Facebook
page.
On Sunday, Mr.
Hillman was spotted by Jamie Seerman and her sister Samantha near
79th Street and Broadway as they were shopping for a Christmas
tree.
As he was being
interviewed, several people noticed him.
“What happened
to the boots?” one man asked.
