A Mysterious Hero, Rewarded

The Mystery of the Burning Vehicle Rescue... SOLVED.

A mystery was hatched (are mysteries hatched?) on July 24th in the Concho Valley of West Texas.

It was then and there that Michelle Lewis' father-in-law was involved in a car accident that resulted in his vehicle catching fire. When Michelle arrived t the scene, she discovered that her father-in-law had been rescued from the blaze, but the rescuer had left without identifying themselves.

Who was this mysterious hero? The first clue came weeks later, while Michelle was doing the laundry. She found a work shirt left behind with the name "Andy" stitched on.

The patch that spawned a mystery (photo courtesy of Michelle Lewis)

The next step was social media. Lewis was soon tracing the shirt and patch to the USA Compression company in nearby San Angelo.

From there, Lewis eventually identified the rescuer as Andy Vidovich. Piecing the fateful night back together, she deduced that Vidovich was one of the first people at the scene of the crash and that the shirt was used to save her father-in-law’s life.

Lewis returned Vidovich's shirt and presented him with a locally raised $300 award. During their meeting, Vidovich shared his account of the incident. He explained that he had been driving when he saw the car on fire and immediately stopped to help. Vidovich used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames…

“… and he and another fellow put the fire out, but he put this (the shirt) on my father-in-law’s face to protect it,”

I firmly believe that human beings inherently like certain things. They like laughing, they like to vent, they like many things. They definitely like to solve mysteries.

This mystery is based on the good actions of a good man.

If that’s not enough goodness for you - upon receiving the award, Vidovich decided to pay it forward by donating the money to Lewis' father-in-law for his medical expenses.

Note: Vehicle fires are a significant safety concern. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), there are approximately 1.2 million vehicle fires in the United States each year.