BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — It's a story that lives up to the moniker: "The City of Good Neighbors", and it all started with a drive down the Kensington Expressway.
On a typical Friday, Chrystina White-Lopez gets ready to head into work, as nurse in the covid testing RV, at the Erie County Medical Center.
"I usually get to work at about 7:30 and I was getting to work at about them and I was making good time," Chrystina White-Lopez explained.
However, on Friday, December 9, her commute to work had a bump in the road.
"I didn't notice anything at first and all of a sudden the car started shaking, and I was like, 'uh-oh' and I turned the music down and you can hear the tire that was like, 'ba-boom, ba-boom'", she added.
The Cheektowaga resident was driving on The 33 by the Eggert exit, when she pulled over, and that is when she noticed one of her tires had blown. About a half-hour later, it just so happened OJ Toomer had just dropped his kids off at daycare and was en route on another errand.
Olajuwon "OJ" Toomer recalled, "I saw the car on the side of the road. Flat tire. Real bad flat. I stopped to ask her if she needed some help. She explained to me that she was waiting on AAA for probably like 30 minutes by the time I got there, so I changed the tire. It probably took me no more than 15 minutes to do it."
While these were 15 minutes out of his busy day, to White-Lopez, it made a world of difference in her busy day.
"He filled my donut and put it on and just didn't expect anything out of me. I thought it was sweet and said the only way I could repay you was to take a picture. I said, it sounds weird but can I take a picture, business name and I was going to make a post online just to hopefully bring him some business. Just to help him in a way just because he took some time to help me," White-Lopez said.
Since making her Facebook post about the good neighbor deed, White-Lopez's post has garnered about 1,000 shares, and now his two-year-old business, "Big Juice One Stop Shop" or "The Mobile Mechanic", has had an influx of callers wanting to get serviced.
"I was not expecting someone to be so neighborly. It was like 30 degrees outside and he just stopped and said, 'Ill help you. He was all bundled up and everything but he still helped me. I didn't want to stand out there but he helped me," White-Lopez said.
To Toomer, his kindness is just a characteristic he hopes others follow.
Toomer said, "I'm always willing to help people. I have six kids so I am trying to set a good example for them."
Big Juice One Stop Shop can also be found on Instagram and Facebook.
