A Good Samaritan who travelled two hours on a "humanitarian quest" to save a suicidal man was given a parking ticket while he talked the man out of his dark place.
Ryan Dior, 71, wo has been saving lives for 30 years, was called by a man he knew who had been struggling with his mental health for a while, Derbyshire Live reports.
Ryan has made it his mission to help those with serious depression and suicidal thoughts but he was left asking "what kind of world are we living in?” when he was slapped with a £100 parking fine.
The man in need, from Buxton, in the Derbyshire Peak District, told Ryan that he felt that his life was falling apart.
Ryan said: “His health was failing, he had to be moved to sheltered accommodation and they wouldn’t take his dog and he was attacked in a car park where his spine was broken in three or four places.
“I’d been helping him for two or three weeks with calls and getting his dog rehomed, all to help him get his life back on track.
“He called me one day and told me he was struggling so I went on this humanitarian quest to Buxton, which was a two-hour drive, to get him out of the house to get coffee.”
Ryan, from Manchester, drove him to the Palace Hotel in Buxton and informed the staff in the bar that he had parked outside, but he
claims he was never asked for any registration details.
Two days later he was issued with a parking penalty of £100 for not paying a parking fee at the hotel.
Whilst Ryan admits seeing a small sign to do with parking outside, he claims that staff never mentioned a fee or encouraged payment.
He added: “I rang Parking Eye about this parking charge to explain what had happened, and the woman I spoke to, her manner was rather unpleasant.
“I’m sure she probably gets a lot of irate drivers bending her ear because she’s in the firing line, so I gave her a lot of room for
that.
“She asked if I wanted to pay for the ticket then, and I told her no, that I was availing the hotel of the services, and she told me that if
I wanted to appeal the charge it would be awkward.
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“He was next to me at the time, and was getting desperate and just wanted to pay it, and I told him he shouldn’t but he ended up getting his card and paying for it.”
After getting nowhere with an appeal against the charge, Ryan contacted the hotel to explain the situation surrounding the charge.
Britannia hotels then cancelled the charge for Ryan’s ticket, but Parking Eye have yet to issue a refund for the fine, however, they said in a statement that they're in the process of doing so.
Ryan admits that rather than the charge itself, it is more the manner in which it was dealt with that has irritated him.
“It’s the rudeness with them, the absolute rudeness,” he said. “After saying that I was on a humanitarian mission and I told her I
was a suicide prevention person, and there was no empathy whatsoever, quite the opposite.
“I can understand people getting so uptight and hot under the collar, but if you can’t have any empathy for the job I do, then what can I do?
“The stress and the exhaustion from this and the work I do is starting to have an impact on me, what kind of world are we living in?”
A spokesperson from Parking Eye has since confirmed that they have cancelled the parking ticket and are in the process of refunding Mr Dior.
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