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Man who walked 20 miles to work given boss’ car

HOMEWOOD, Ala. (WIAT) – The story of a dedicated man who was willing to walk all night to be on time for his first day of work has gone viral, prompting an outpouring of community support and a generous move by his employer’s CEO. 

Walter Carr works for Bellhops, a moving company that was hired to help a Pelham family move over the weekend. 

Pelham Police spotted Carr after he was four hours into his trek from Homewood to Pelham, a distance of at least 14 miles. Police picked him up and took him to breakfast. After learning that his car had broken down the night before and that he had been walking since midnight, the officers gave him a ride to work. 

Police took Carr to a Pelham home where Bellhops was scheduled to help move a family. Upon arrival, officers and Carr met Jenny Lamey. Officers were impressed with Carr’s story and shared it with Lamey, who then shared it with the world. 

“Yesterday was a long day. But a good day. Chris and I woke up around 5:45am to get everything staged and ready for the movers. Around 6:30am the doorbell rang. It was a police officer. He proceeded to tell us that he had picked up ‘this nice kid’ in Pelham early this morning. ‘The nice kid’, Walter, said he was supposed to help us with our move today. It was his first day on the job with this moving company (Bellhops) and he was ‘training’ today,” Lamey explained in a now-viral Facebook post. 

“The officer proceeded to tell us that the previous evening Walter’s car broke down and he didn’t know how he was going to get to work. So he left Homewood at MIDNIGHT and started WALKING to Pelham on 280. For those reading this that are not local, that’s over 20 miles.”

Lamey went on to share more of Carr’s personal story, adding that his family moved to Birmingham after losing their home in Hurricane Katrina. 

Even after walking over half of his trip, Carr declined Lamey’s offer to rest before the rest of the moving crew arrived, getting right to work. 

Lamey described Carr as humble when she asked him to tell an employee of the moving company what he did to get there. 

“Walter said ‘I walked’. That was it. Humble. I asked him to share a little more and when he did, the crew was in awe of him too! I don’t know that Walter would have shared if I hadn’t asked him to.”

After hearing about Carr’s inspiring journey to work, the CEO of Bellhops decided to surprise him with a gift. On Monday, CEO Luke Marklin gifted Carr his 2014 Ford Escape.