A good deed on Good Friday was something special for a Port Clinton man, and it took a lot of sympathetic help from law enforcement officers to make it all happen along a local highway.

Richard Ellis was driving east on State Route 2 on Good Friday when he spotted a man standing next to his car on the side of the road. The man was in obvious distress.

“All I could get out of him was that his car had broken down and he had find some way to get home,” said Ellis. “With his head in his shaking hands, it really seemed like he was in the midst of a nervous breakdown.”Really distraught, and with a simple flat tire.

Except that it wasn’t really a simple flat tire.

Ellis, who has had some medical training, was worried the man was close to a mental breakdown. He appeared to be in his 20s, and would only say that his name was Ben. It seemed to Ellis that Ben would totally melt down on the side of the highway and injure himself.

Ellis called for assistance, hoping they could send a bus and a medical expert to take Ben to the hospital.

The first responder was Trooper Cory Harris of the Sandusky Post of the Ohio Highway Patrol. A very large in stature officer, Trooper Harris took charge in helping the distraught man to settle down, and fix the broken tire.

Sgt. Brandon Amory of the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Department had also arrived, followed by Lt. Shaun Robinson of the Ohio Highway Patrol.

While crawling under Ben’s car in the muddy grass, the trio decided to jack the car up to change to flat tire but could not find a jack in Ben’s vehicle. So they used a jack from one of the a Highway Patrol cars — and it broke!

“We did the only thing we could do,” said Ellis. “We all chipped in to get the tire fixed at the local Walmart.”

Not only did Deputy Amory have the tire fixed, but bought a new jack for the Highway Patrol.

“We tried to give Sgt. Amory money for the jack and tire repair, but he said Ottawa County Sheriff Stephen J. Levorchick wasn’t having it,” said Ellis. “It was the perfect gift on Good Friday to help a young man go home.”