Instacart Driver Saves Elderly Man's Life After Noticing Something Concerning While Delivering His Groceries
You never know when someone might need your help.
TikTok It isn’t every day that you have both the awareness and the opportunity to help someone else, let alone to save a life.
But, if you do you certainly won't regret taking action.
As TikToker and Instacart driver, Jessica Higgs says in her now-viral post, “If you see something, say something.”
The Instacart delivery driver saved an older man’s life by defying protocol and paying attention.
In a post on her TikTok, Higgs described an Instacart order that she delivered where she went the extra mile (and then some) for her customer.
Higgs had received the order from the daughter of an elderly man who was ordering groceries for her father.
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When Higgs arrived at the delivery address, she felt as though something was off, when she went to drop off the groceries on the porch as she was instructed and as was the company protocol, the elderly man opened the door.
Higgs said that ordinarily when Instacart drivers deliver orders, “You're just supposed to take a picture and leave,” but Higgs felt like she needed to stay, saying, “I could not just leave.”
Instacart drivers are not allowed to enter homes, they are supposed to simply drop off their deliveries, take a picture of the delivery and then leave.
Higgs defied Instacart’s rules, saying in the TikTok, “something was telling me ‘no, you gotta help this man out’ and he came out and I was like, ‘ok, well let me help you’ and I got the groceries and you’re not supposed to go in someone’s house, but I used my judgment.”
Defying the rules, Higgs helped the elderly man by bringing his groceries into the house.
Higgs noticed something alarming when she entered the man’s house.
When Higgs went into the man’s home she put the groceries down where he wanted them. But when it came time to leave, she decided to message the man’s daughter, who had originally made the order, about what she had noticed in the old man’s house.
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Higgs had noticed that the elderly man looked sick and she could smell gas when she was in the house. The smell was so potent that Higgs said it made her feel dizzy.
Higgs then decided not to close the order even though she had completed it because that would prevent her from messaging the man’s daughter again.
She then messaged the man’s daughter, saying, “‘He’s not doing good, he’s sick. There’s a propane tank in there and I was in there maybe five feet and I got dizzy,’ and I said ‘there’s got to be a leak’”
The man's daughter took the warning seriously.
The woman said that she would send her son to check on her father and she increased her tip from $14 to $100.
Soon after, the woman posted a five-star rating and a comment saying that there was definitely a leak and that Higgs had saved both her father and her younger son’s lives.
It just goes to show that sometimes just paying attention and trusting your judgment can make a difference in the lives of others.
And as Higgs says, if you see something, say something.
Dan O'Reilly is a writer who covers news, politics, and social justice. Follow him on Twitter.