Jeffrey Hillman, the homeless man who became an international poster-boy for vagrants everywhere when a hero cop gave him some boots, is shoeless again. Hillman was a viral sensation and front-page news last week after he received the swanky pair of $100 Sketchers from kindhearted NYPD officer Officer Lawrence DePrimo.
But now Hillman is being practical.
He told The New York Times, which tracked him down:
Those shoes are hidden, they are worth a lot of money. I could lose my life.”
Meanwhile, Hillman doesn’t seem to happy that he hasn’t been receiving the appropriate royalties for his starring role in this heartwarming drama over the past few weeks:
I was put on YouTube, I was put on everything without permission. What do I get? This went around the world, and I want a piece of the pie.
But Hillman, an Army vet, didn’t want to sound too ungrateful:
I appreciate what the officer did, don’t get me wrong, I wish there were more people like him in the world.
Officer Lawrence diPrimo
Hillman’s family reportedly didn’t know about Jeffrey’s dire situation until they read about it like everyone else.
As a reward for his inadvertent work of PR genius, Officer DePrimo was awarded a pair of department cufflinks by commissioner Ray Kelly.