A man using a wheelchair was struggling to get across six lanes of traffic when help came along in an unexpected way — a real-life friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
Cameras caught the moment a Good Samaritan dressed in the New York superhero’s iconic blue and red garb came to the man’s aid in Arkansas.
Christopher Hellenthal was still dressed in his Spider-Man costume from a superhero-themed event at a trampoline park where he works when he spotted the person in traffic Tuesday.
The 20 year-old jumped into action from a red Jeep waiting at a light and declared: “I got you”.
Hellenthal swiftly rolled the person in the wheelchair to safety only seconds before the light changed and the rows of traffic advanced.
The moment was captured by a street security camera in the city of Jonesboro and shared on social media by local police, who thanked Hellenthal for helping the man reach safety across the crosswalk.
“I had a bunch of adrenaline pumping through me,” Hellenthal told The Associated Press, adding he had to act quickly in bustling midday traffic.
“I was just kind of thinking, ‘I’m wearing this suit; it’s gonna be pretty funny’.”
After brining the man safely across the road, a local route, Hellenthal bolted back into his Jeep blocking traffic “because the light turned green pretty fast”.
After the Jonesboro Police Department shared the video on Facebook, it quickly accumulated tens of thousands of likes.
One person commented about a missed opportunity to strike a “Spidey pose” to celebrate the incident.
“Not in my 7 years in the department have I witnessed this,” said Sally Smith, a department spokesperson, referring to the video. Police did not identify the individual using the wheelchair by name.
Hellenthal, who lives in Lake City, east of Jonesboro, said he’s always been a Spider-Man fan. He said he even had the opportunity to meet the late Stan Lee, the Marvel legend who co-created the superhero with comic book artist Steve Ditko in the 1960s.
Spider-Man has gone on to become one of Hollywood’s most bankable superhero characters, with the last instalment No Way Home making nearly $2 billion.
The rescue comes just days ahead of the release of the new Spider-Man movie Brand New Day, the fourth in the series of films starring British actor Tom Holland.
Packy Magel, a manager at Ultimate Air Trampoline Park who works with Hellenthal, said he recognized he from the video despite his superhero getup.
It’s “very much like him to do something like that and very much like him to be still in costume,” Magel said.
