One California man has become an internet star after video of a homeless man using a cash donation to buy food for others has reached more viewers than any of his other YouTube hits.
The video was posted by Josh Paler Lin and it shows him giving a man $100 on a freeway off-ramp in Anaheim. Lin hoped to catch the man spending the cash on alcohol, so he followed him around for an hour, with his camera ready.
But the man, whose name is given only as Thomas, ends up buying food at a liquor store, walking to a park and giving it away to others who appear to be in need.
The act prompts Lin to hug him and apologetically explain his original motivations: to show how a homeless guy could waste a holiday gift.
“There's things money can't buy,” Thomas says. “I get a happiness out of what I'm doing.”
Thomas explains that he recently became homeless when his mother and stepfather died within several weeks of each other and their condominium, where he was living, had to be sold.
“There's a lot of people who are just victims of circumstance,” Thomas says. “They didn't go homeless because they're lazy. There's a lot of good people who are homeless.”
On Tuesday, a day after the video was posted and had reached more than 6 million viewers, Lin had raised more than $36,000 on an Indiegogo.com fundraiser page that states the funds will give a “fresh start” to Thomas.
Lin said he never planned to raise money for Thomas, but many commenters on the YouTube video wanted to contribute to help the man.
“I was going to catch him drinking beer and … say, ‘Bro, why'd you buy beer? I thought you needed food,'” Lin recalled.
Instead, Lin said, “My heart just melted.”
According to the Indiegogo page, Lin plans to buy a cellphone for Thomas so the two can stay in touch, and to help him get a place to call home and “get a career” so he can start “his new life.” More than 1,900 people had contributed by early Tuesday evening.
