This was the most popular article on our site for 2020.
Sometimes you just don’t know if some stories will resonate with readers. There are those we just know will be solid hits, but those odd stories you’re not quite sure how people will take them come along occassionally, which was definitely the case back in August with the video of a guy catching the neighbor kid repeatedly playing in his driveway. I ran across this on YouTube since I was already a follower of CanyonChasers, a channel which offers some great, actionable motorcycle riding tips.
It was right in the middle of all those horrific videos posted to social media of riots in different cities with buildings burned to the ground, cars stolen and trashed, and people killed. Seeing just how violent humans could be, a lot of people were feeling on edge and maybe even eyed their own neighbors with a degree of suspicion. Then this video of a guy reacting to the little neighbor kid triggering the motion sensor on his driveway camera came along and reminded everyone that humans can be good-natured.
After queuing the article up for publication, a competing site I won’t name was able to sniff out what we were planning. I think they saw that covering the video could be successful, so they fired off a quick post about it to “beat” us. However, their writer took a cynical, downright snide approach to the story and it backfired big time.
I looked at this video and thought of all the times my kids probably did things which annoyed the neighbors, as kids will sometimes do, and how we all have to make a choice about how we’re going to deal with that kind of a situation. What this video shows is not only a guy not freaking out and doing something mean, but instead adding to the joy of a small child. It caught on and other people started getting in on the fun, and that’s how doing the right thing can inspire others.
This story spread quickly and a lot of other news outlets picked it up. Thankfully, most of them didn’t come at it from a cynical angle and we hope a lot of people were inspired to act kindly towards others at a time when it seemed like so many were doing the exact opposite.
It’s kind of funny how this story of a small child on a bike riding in his neighbor’s driveway became such a hit, but it was the news everyone desperately needed at the time.
