As some lament big city life being cold and impersonal, a Toronto man is thanking Casa Loma neighbourhood residents for their compassion after he and his friend were allegedly robbed at knifepoint.
Gideon Scanlon wrote a letter titled “A thank you to Howland” after he and his friend were walking near Howland Avenue, near Bathurst and Dupont streets, early Monday morning when he said they were attacked by two men.
“A guy grabbed my friend from behind, put him in a chokehold and turned him around, another fellow stepped out from in front of us, behind the parked cars, as if we walked into a trap,” Scanlon told Global News Wednesday, saying a knife was put to his friend’s throat.
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“I started running in the other direction … I booked it as quickly as I could southbound screaming.”
Scanlon said he was running and yelling for help when he said the two men knocked his friend down.
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In the letter, which was posted on Howland Avenue Tuesday and has since gone viral after being posted on Reddit, he thanks a woman and her dog for stepping in to help.
“I am particularly grateful to the brave woman near the Tarragon who opened her front door and spoke with me as I sat stunned in front of her house. Our attackers had barely fled when we spoke,” he wrote, adding residents called police who attended minutes after the incident.
“My faith in humanity was buoyed by your streets actions, my faith in canines was even more uplifted … it was her dog’s barks that dissuaded my pursuers from following me to the southwest side of the street.”
“If the office is not yet occupied, I would move for this brave hound to be named Howland’s Howler-in-Chief.”
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Martha Randall has lived on the street for 22 years and tended to Scanlon and his friend Monday morning. She said she was just about to go to bed when she heard her dog Finn bark and a man screaming, ‘Help, help!’
“My instinct was to open the door and see what was going on and came out with my dog. The man was by himself visibly shaken and told us that they had been attacked,” Randall said.
“I may be naively, but innocently just wanted to see if I could provide assistance. It sounded like he really needed help.”
Randall said she was touched after reading the letter.
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Meanwhile, Scanlon said the kindness of strangers helped him and his friend get through the experience.
“I felt terrible to have woken everyone, but all the heads popping out of windows, checking in on us, were all more concerned about us than their night’s sleeps, which I mean says wonderful things about a city,” he said.
“I’ve lived in Toronto, I’ve lived in London and people always talk about how cold Torontonians are, but I mean if there was ever proof people are going to be warm is when you’re sitting here when you’re nervous and shaking.”
With files from Tom Hayes and Ryan Rocca
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