SALT LAKE CITY (WSVN) — Residents in one Utah community rallied together to help a 90-year-old man after his only means of transportation was stolen.
Don Silvino is a staple of the downtown Salt Lake City area. He doesn’t speak English, but residents often spot him riding around on his tricycle.
“He’s been going around on a tricycle picking up aluminum cans just to make a buck,” Jorge Fierro told Fox 13.
Fierro said Silvino was looking into garbage cans Saturday afternoon when someone stole his trike as his back was turned. The elderly man watched helplessly as a woman took off with his only means of getting around.
“You hear someone who is 90 years old who is trying to be self-sufficient, and for somebody to try and take away something he uses to utilize to make that happen, it hurt,” said Jorge Robles.
Fierro and Robles got the word out to the community, sharing pictures on social media and setting up a GoFundMe page. Their goal: buy Don a new trike and give him some money to make it through the winter.
“Within 48 hours, we surpassed it,” Robles said of their fundraiser goal. “It was just incredible.”
The pair collected more than two thousand dollars in donations, along with two tricycles, each worth more than $400.
Silvino said he believes God will pay everybody for what they have done to help him.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.