Good Samaritans help 79-year-old man drive to see family in Wisconsin
(WLUK) -- Thanks to a couple in Illinois, a 79-year-old man driving from Arizona was able to safely make it to Wisconsin.
WMTV reports Dennis Milentz left his hometown of Heber-Overgaard, Arizona, to make the 1,660-mile journey to Fremont in Waupaca County to see his son for the first time in 18 years.
Milentz told WMTV he encountered some obstacles on his journey. He said he had trouble operating his GPS and got lost several times, ultimately adding an unwanted 200 miles to his trip.
Luckily Milentz met Elton Hood and Tracy Eckhardt at a gas station in Woodhull, Illinois.
The couple wrote directions on a piece of paper, shared their phone number and sent Milentz on his way.
Within 15 minutes, Eckhardt said she got a call from Milentz.
“[Elton] just looked at me and said, ‘Are you ready to go to Wisconsin?' Of course, I said ‘yes’ because I couldn’t let him be lost," Eckhardt said.
With Milentz driving behind them, the couple drove three hours to Madison where Milentz's son picked him up.
The trip was documented on TikTok and has since got viral.
“Neither one of us could bear the thought of-- if we saw a missing persons alert or if something bad happened to him, if we had the potential to help turn this around and didn’t do it. That was just not going to work for either of us," Eckhardt said.
However, this trio's journey is not over yet.
Due to certain circumstances, Milentz's family is not able to escort him back to Arizona so the couple agreed to drive him back home.
Hood and Eckhardt are accepting donations for the trip on their TikTok account. Any excess donations will be donated to veteran organizations because of Hood and Milentz’s service in the Marines and Army, respectively, Eckhardt said.
