While walking towards a veterinary pharmacy, a boy heard a dog crying for help inside a car. After trying to find the car owner to no avail, the boy broke the car’s window glass open, unaware that his good deed would soon get him into trouble.
Derek had grown up petting animals on the street and even wanted to keep a pet dog, but his parents never allowed him to keep one because of their poor financial condition.
They never discouraged the teenager from petting other people’s dogs, but having one at home was a luxury they couldn’t afford. As a result, Derek began volunteering at a local animal shelter, where he would spend hours with his furry friends.
As part of his duty, Derek often visited the veterinary pharmacy to buy medicines for sick animals using the donation money. During one of his visits, he experienced something strange that soon got him into trouble.
It was a typical day for Derek when he crossed the pharmacy’s parking lot to reach the entrance. Walking under the scorching sun, he could feel his skin burn, but it didn’t bother him because he was ready to do anything to save animals.
When he was about to enter the pharmacy, he heard a faint whimper. Is that a dog? Derek wondered and turned his head to see if there was any dog around.
He heard the same sound again a few seconds later, but it was loud and continuous this time. Oh yes, it’s a dog! he thought to himself and followed the painful voice. Seconds later, Derek was peeking inside a white SUV, where he found a dog sitting in the backseat.
“What happened to you, baby?” Derek said before he tried to open the car’s locked door. Then, he looked around to see if the owner was there, but he didn’t find anyone.
“How dare you damage my car and steal my dog? What do you think you were doing?” the man shouted.
“We need to get you out of here, buddy,” Derek said to the trapped dog, who was breathing rapidly while lying flat on the leather surface. “He must be suffocating. I need to get him out!” the boy said to himself.
He tried to activate the car’s alarm by kicking the tires, hitting on the car’s body, and trying to open the doors, but nothing worked. What should I do? Derek wondered as he looked at the ground and spotted a football-sized rock in the nearby grass.
Without thinking twice, Derek picked up the heavy rock and brought it near the car. Once again, he looked around the parking lot to find the car’s owner to no avail and then picked the rock to smash the car’s window glass.
Once he broke the SUV’s window, he carefully slid his hand inside and unlocked the door. “Come on, buddy! You need to see a doctor,” Derek said to the dog before picking him up.
Without wasting time, Derek rushed towards the shelter with the dog in his arms and asked the vet to check him. “Is he fine?” Derek asked.
“Yes, Derek. Your little friend is only a bit dehydrated,” the vet replied after checking the dog. “I must say, you rescued him at the right time. Otherwise, he could have died of suffocation.”
Derek breathed a sigh of relief before thanking the doctor. Then, he fed the dog and gave him some water. “Let’s go back to the pharmacy, shall we?” he said to the dog and ruffled his brown fur.
After walking for a few minutes with the dog in his arms, Derek reached the pharmacy’s parking lot. However, what he saw there was something he wasn’t expecting.
A middle-aged man was standing near the SUV, pointing at the broken glass and shouting at the pharmacy’s staff. He was furious because someone had broken his window and taken away his dog, but he didn’t know who had done it.
“Here’s your dog. I took him to―” Derek tried explaining while keeping his new furry friend on the ground before the dog’s owner began yelling at him.
“How dare you damage my car and steal my dog? What do you think you were doing?” the man shouted.
“Look, sir, I was only trying to help your dog,” Derek explained. “He was trapped in the backseat since you had left him in the car with all the windows rolled up. He was almost suffocating when I saw him.”
“No one asked for your help!” the man grumbled. “I only went to the pharmacy for five minutes, and you broke my window! You’re a liar! You’re a thief!”
“Sir, I volunteer at the nearby shelter, so I took your dog there,” Derek replied calmly. “You can ask the vet there. He checked your dog and said I brought him at the right time.”
The man rolled his eyes and put his dog in the backseat before getting into the driver’s seat. Then, he gave Derek an angry look and drove away.
Later that day, everyone at the shelter praised Derek for saving the dog from dying. However, when he went home and told his mother about it, she said he shouldn’t have broken the car’s window.
“Mom, I couldn’t leave the dog to die in there,” he explained to his mother.
“I know, but the car’s owner must be so angry. You damaged his expensive car, sweetheart,” Derek’s mother said. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
“I had no other option, Mom,” Derek replied.
A week later, when Derek came home from the animal shelter, his mother told him they had received a letter from the court stating that the car’s owner had filed a lawsuit against them.
“I told you, Derek. You shouldn’t have broken the window!” his mother said. “How will we pay this huge fine? We don’t even have enough money to make ends meet!”
Derek read the court’s notice and felt guilty about damaging the man’s car. While he felt terrible, he also knew he couldn’t have let the dog die.
The next day, Derek and his mother talked to a lawyer about the case. The lawyer didn’t charge them any fee but told them they needed evidence to prove that the man had left the dog inside the locked car for too long. Otherwise, Derek would have to pay the fine.
After talking to the lawyer, Derek’s mother told him she would try getting help from another lawyer and asked him not to worry. “You can go to the shelter, Derek. They must be waiting for you,” she said.
One of the animals fell sick at the shelter that day, so Derek had to go to the pharmacy again. He could only think of the trapped dog in the SUV while walking through the parking lot when he saw a CCTV camera.
Evidence! I can use this as evidence! he thought to himself and darted for the security room inside the pharmacy. Over there, he requested the staff to show him the recording from last week.
“Yes! I knew he was lying!” Derek exclaimed after watching the security camera footage that showed the man had left the dog in his car for more than an hour.
“Can you please provide me a copy of this footage? I need it for legal purposes,” Derek explained to the staff.
Later that day, Derek returned home with the security camera footage and showed it to his mother on their old desktop computer.
“See, Mom! The footage proves he is lying!” Derek said before his mother hugged him and praised him for getting the proof. “I’m so proud of you!” she said.
The next day, Derek and his mother showed the security camera footage to their lawyer, and soon, they won the case against the man. After the video proved the man was lying, the judge ordered the authorities to take the dog away from him.
A few weeks later, the animal welfare workers dropped the dog at the shelter where Derek worked, and they were asked to take care of him until someone adopted him.
“Mom, can we adopt the dog?” Derek asked his mother that evening. “He came to the shelter today.”
“Oh, Derek. You know I don’t have enough money to feed him,” she replied.
“Mom, don’t worry. We will work it out,” Derek said. “I will ask the shelter managers to help me feed him. Can we please adopt him, Mom? I’ll call him Max!”
Two days later, Derek brought Max home after his mother agreed. She allowed him to keep the dog as a reward for his kind deed. She felt immensely proud of her son for taking care of animals in a world where people tend to be so cruel to them.
What can we learn from this story?
Good deeds are always rewarded in some way or the other. Although Derek received a court notice for damaging the man’s car, he later got rewarded for saving the dog from dying. Sometimes, the reward might take time, but a good deed never goes to waste.
Lying can never save you. The man lied in court, hoping to win the case, but he had no idea that Derek would get the security camera footage. Ultimately, he had to lose his dog and pay for the car repairs himself.
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When a homeless boy saved a dog from a flooded car, he had no idea he would soon be rewarded with a room. Click here to read the entire story.
This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only.
