Pamela and Gary Neff headed to Altoona two days after Christmas to do some shopping when they noticed someone wandering on the highway.

“There was a gentleman there and he was out hitchhiking and it was freezing that day so I told my husband we need to pick this guy up,” Pamela Neff, a Tyrone resident, said.

That’s exactly what they did and they got to know the man who called himself Eric. He told the couple he needed to get to Pittsburgh to see his family.

“I said ‘I can take you out to Duncansville and get you on 22,'” Gary Neff said. “Then the more we went my wife said ‘you really want to do that? It’s really cold. Let’s see if he can get on a train.'”

That’s when the couple brought him to the Altoona Greyhound station and bought him a ticket to Pittsburgh.

“Our departure from him was kind of hard,” Pamela said. “I kept turning back because I just wanted to make sure that he was okay.”

You may think once he got on the bus the story ends, but it’s just the beginning.

Pamela went home and posted their good deed on Facebook.

The responses flooded in. There were tons of comments and shares on her post that said the man in the pictures looked strikingly similar to Paul Davis, a man missing out of Huntingdon County.

Pamela immediately called police. Officers were eventually able to track Davis down and bring him home safely.

“I was very relieved and very happy that he was safe,” Pamela said.

The Neffs never thought their random act of kindness would end up being the tip police needed to solve a missing persons case.

“We just did it to help someone who needed help,” Gary explained.

It’s a chance encounter they’ll never forget.