A Riverside County man disturbed after witnessing attacks on street vendors in Southern California on social media decided to make a change, and bought out one local vendor’s entire cart for the day.
Obadiah Baldwin said over the past few months he’s been disturbed by videos that show street vendors being harassed, and in some cases physically attacked and robbed.
“I came down here from the driveway and stopped him,” Baldwin said of the spot outside his Perris home where he stopped street vendor Miguel Lopez earlier this month.
With his 13-year-old son following behind, he started buying out the corn for $80.
Then he bought all the chips for $40.
“How much? $120. Lets get it,” he can be heard saying in the video.
Baldwin said he did this in part because it was a good life lesson for his young son.
“To give him an example of what’s the right thing to do versus the wrong thing to do at the end of the day,” he said.
“This thing is getting out of hand. These young idiots think it’s cool to run around thinking it’s cool to rob the ice cream man and the corn man…and you don’t represent me,” he said of the recent videos showing vendors getting harassed.
He said because of those videos, he decided to post his own on social media.
He says street vendors have a tough life. They work hard, and we should all appreciate them. There’s no doubt that Miguel Lopez appreciated the kind gesture.
“He was happy. He was smiling all through his face mask and everything. He couldn’t believe it man,” Baldwin said.
Lopez told NBCLS by phone in Spanish that Baldwin didn’t take the food he bought, so Lopez could sell it and make double the money that day.
It’s another act of kindness that Baldwin says we could all learn from.
“It’s all about love, man. Just spread love, not hate. This world is in turmoil and we need all the love that we can get,” he said.
Source: NBC Los Angeles
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