ROCKLAND, Maine — A Maine woman was a superhero to a boy whose Spider-Man bicycle was stolen.
According to a news release from the Rockland Police Department, the woman, who is homeless and asked to remain anonymous, a 3-year-old boy had his bicycle stolen when he parked it outside of a store to shop with his mother late last month.
“We went to Walgreens. And we stopped and put his bike on the sidewalk and decided to give him a little candy treat and say ‘Woo-hoo, you made it half a mile,’” Liz Fuller-Wright, the child’s mother, told WTMW-TV. “We came out, and the bike wasn’t there. And I walked up and down the length of the sidewalk thinking because there’s those big cement columns, so I thought maybe he couldn’t see it. But it wasn’t there.”
Will Fuller-Wright’s bicycle was gone, and surveillance cameras showed a person taking it from outside the store, according to the television station.
“It was a mix of emotions. I mean, sad, disappointed, you know, angry at the state of humanity,” Liz Fuller-Wright told WMTW. “He’s 3 years old. This is his first bike. And you don’t want to think that anybody would do that.”
The Rockland Police Department posted about the theft of the bicycle on Facebook. That is when the woman, who lives across the state in Oxford County, stepped up.
Police said the woman donated a new Spider-Man bicycle, a matching helmet and a bike lock, according to the news release.
“The hero wanted nothing in return,” police wrote.
Police said the woman recently had become homeless, adding that she had to choose between making a car payment or paying her rent. She chose the former and is currently living out of her vehicle.
According to police, a store clerk who heard about the woman’s generosity gave her money to cover the cost of tolls, WCSH-TV reported. The Mid-Coast Recovery Coalition started a collection to raise funds to help support the woman, the television station reported.
The woman told WMTV that she saw the post about the boy losing his bicycle and wanted to help.
“What this little boy was thinking when he came out of that store with his mom, and saw his bike missing, I cried. I worried about what that little boy would be growing up and be thinking about the world,” the woman told the television station. “I went to Walmart, and I purchased the one and only bike, got him the helmet, the lock. And then I took it to Rockland.”
Liz Fuller-Wright said she spoke with the woman over the telephone and was moved by her generosity.
“She’s not someone flushed with cash. But she gave so much so generously to a little boy she’d never met, never known. Because she wanted him to be happy,” Liz Fuller-Wright told WMTW. “She didn’t want him to think that there were that there were bad guys in the world. She wanted him to have faith in humanity.”
As for young Will, he knew that good would prevail. That is why Spider-Man is his hero, the television station reported.
“He saves everybody by catching bad guys in the net,” the boy told WMTW.