Deep inside a basement in a Norfolk, Virginia, apartment building, Doug Williams, Jason Suits and D’Aaron Brown—all field technicians for Virginia Natural Gas—were working on repairs to equipment during routine maintenance when suddenly there was a sound.
It was eerie, especially when they thought they heard the word “help.”
The sounds kept coming off and on, and the three men decided to investigate. They walked up to a first-floor apartment where they thought the noises might be coming from and knocked on the door. There was no answer.
“We really didn’t know what to think,” Williams told WTKR News 3. “We didn’t know if someone was hurt or being held against their will, so we decided the best thing was to call the police to have them check out the situation.”
Once police arrived and continued to knock on the apartment door, suddenly they could hear words clearly: “I’m in the kitchen,” repeated over and over.
Police kicked in the door and found an elderly woman sprawled across the kitchen floor. She was rushed to the hospital, where staff found out she had been lying there for nearly three days with nothing to eat or drink. “If we hadn’t heard her crying out for help, she would have most likely died by the next day on her kitchen floor,” Williams said.
“It was a blessing that we were working in the basement that day,” Suits added. “We were blessed to be able to save a life that day.”
Virginia Natural Gas President Jim Kibler commended the trio’s actions as an example of how team members not only look after each other on a daily basis while on the job, but also lend a hand when needed to the customers they serve.
“While these three don’t see themselves as heroes, they certainly represent our Virginia Natural Gas family very well,” Kibler said. “We have a strong sense of community with the region we serve, and sometimes simply being a good neighbor is the most powerful thing any of us can do.”