Youngster helps out

By Kelly Yates
A HALLAM woman has praised the efforts of her teenage grandson after he recently helped an older woman who was lost and distressed.
Valerie Holland told the News her 16-year-old grandson and his friends were walking near the Beaconsfield Railway Station on Friday 11 December about 10.30pm when they heard the woman crying.
Ms Holland said the teenagers discovered the woman was disoriented and upset, saying she didn’t know where she was.
“She told the group that she was supposed to be in Dandenong,” Ms Holland said.
Ms Holland’s grandson called the police in an effort to get help.
“The police officer on the phone said, ‘Listen buddy, I’m not your personal taxi service,’ ” she said.
According to Ms Holland, the teenagers then found the woman’s mobile phone and called a number stored on it, and luckily it was her son.
“The kids told her son, who lives in Rowville, what had happened and he came and picked her up,” she said.
“He offered a reward to the boys but they didn’t want it. The man insisted as in the past his mother had been attacked and robbed after going missing.”
The boys gave the reward to the mother of one of their friends as a thankyou gift for meals she had given them.
Ms Holland, 70, said she was proud of her grandson and his friends.
“We all downgrade teenagers at times so it’s good to know there are some caring kids out there,” she said.
Ms Holland experienced a similar case with a teenager last week while she was shopping at Aldi in Hampton Park.
“I couldn’t get into my car because the battery had gone in the remote control,” she said.
“I didn’t know what to do and I saw one of the young Aldi employees and asked him if there was a public phone I could use. He said he wasn’t sure and then offered me his own personal mobile phone to use.”