89-Year-Old Pizza Deliveryman Gets Surprise $12K Tip

[demmiblue]

The act of kindness can be priceless. But for Derlin Newey, a pizza delivery driver from Roy, Utah, it was actually worth $12,069.

According to NBC affiliate KSL, the 89-year-old deliveryman for Papa Johns Pizza took the 30-hours-a-week gig to make some extra money because his monthly bills cost more than his social security covered.

One of his customers, Carlos Valdez, began recording Newey's deliveries to his family's front door and sharing them on the social media platform TikTok.

Known for saying, “Hello, are you looking for some pizza?” when he delivers, Newey soon became a fan-favorite to the Valdez's 53,000 followers.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/89-year-old-pizza-deliveryman-gets-surprise-12k-tip/2543062/

Link to tweet

Good lawd, what kind of country are we that an 89 y.o. has to work to make ends meet. And thank you to the kind souls who raised the money so this man has a little breathing room.

[Demovictory9]

1. Kick

[crimycarny]

2. Oh how I needed a story like this

Thank you for posting. Nice to see the good side of humanity. That 89-year old man scraping to get by on SS is far far richer than people like Trump will ever be.

[Docreed2003]

3. Demmiblue I think you're touching the true heart of this story

Yes, it's heartwarming and it feels good to see stories like this but the real issue is why the hell should our elderly be forced into that position in the first place!? That is truly how screwed up our current situation is in this country.

[c-rational]

6. +1

[appalachiablue]

22. +2

[tblue37]

25. +a brazillion! nt

[MustLoveBeagles]

33. This

[Solly Mack]

4. I like to stay busy is one thing. Forced to work because social security isn't enough is another.

Shameful.

[Shermann]

5. Still nowhere near enough to retire

Keep peddlin' those pies, Pops!

[cayugafalls]

7. I'm crying...this is so sad and good all at once.

They are such kind people. But it should not be this way. Our old people should not have to worry so much about being cared for.

[TheBlackAdder]

8. 😭 That one hit me.

[Stuart G]

9. k and r...no text...

[WyattKansas]

10. The last ten years of me working, I had guys always asking why I was not on disability.

I always laughed and explained to them that the United States does not have a social safety net like they or everyone thinks we do. And giving up is to condemn yourself to a life of poverty forever that cannot be escaped. People just looked at me with shocked horror.

Everyone needs to understand that the last 50 years of tax cuts to the wealthy got reconciled by leveraging debt against worker Trust Funds, so it indirectly had the effect of reducing and harming what social safety net has been in place for Americans. For Christ's sake, everyone should be making damn sure that nobody is allowed to brag about wealthy tax cut economies and the stock market, because it strips it from the working poor to boost their numbers up for their Republican Pump and Dump Economy.

[Beartracks]

11. +1 Everybody, read this!

[Dem2theMax]

21. I hope you do understand that not everyone has a choice.

I am one of those people. All I have is disability, because I am disabled. I live on an income that would be described as below poverty level.

I didn't give up. I was born with a disability that has chased me my entire life. I worked for as long as I could. But the disease finally won out.

Please have some compassion for those of us who didn't have a choice to laugh.

[WyattKansas]

27. I did not laugh at those on it!

I refused to stay on it in the mid 90s and I killed myself to go back to work against everyone's advice with disease stacking against me, giving up my off time in life to recover and recuperate for being okay to work, and with my body always failing me forcing me to achieve impossible just to stay off disability... I was finally forced to admit that I could no longer lie myself into working anymore after the corporate friendly U.S. Government determined that I could be terminated and lose all of my seniority and position that I built for myself, because I was 'medically unqualified' to work anymore. By the way, Social Security was absent when I rolled off the first time years ago (I paid my disability expenses to work, not them) and made me go through their damn stall game again and completely humiliate me, only to remain silent about contesting me in front of a judge and have their asses handed to them.

So do not presume to tell me what to do, because the point of what I wrote was to laugh at people for being so ignorant about the United States having a real social safety net that would take care of them.

[Dem2theMax]

28. I wasn't telling you what to do. Clearly.

It sounded as though you were looking down upon people who have disabilities and have to rely on disability insurance to survive. If that was not your intent, then I am sorry that you took my words in that way. It was not what I meant at all.

[WyattKansas]

29. No, you jumped to your conclusion without completely reading what I wrote.

Nor will I justify myself to you anymore and anyone else for that matter, and you were very clear about what you meant to me.

[Dem2theMax]

30. Everyone is under stress. I don't want to get into a pissing match with anyone.

I misinterpreted your words. I think you may have done the same with mine. I know what my intention was and it was not to upset you.

I will leave it at this. Have a wonderful life.

[grantcart]

34. Sorry to hear man

[bucolic_frolic]

12. That'll be me, 2046

if the US still exists

[BamaRefugee]

13. I'm 69 and (until COVID closed my business) working 50-60 hours/7 days a week. My ENTIRE SS check

goes to my rent (and doesn't cover it all).
I saved money all my life and still, if I stop working, my money will be gone in 4 or 5 years. What then? Me and my dog and a shopping cart?
I have to work as long as I can to be able to survive when I can't work any longer...but having my business closed is already making me start taking money out of my life savings, unemployment is paying me a WHOPPING $183 a week, and they take taxes out of that....

[demmiblue]

15. I'm so sorry, BamaRefugee.

Our system is just so untenable.

[BamaRefugee]

17. Thanks, but at least I have some $$$ for backup, I feel sorry for people who DON'T have anything and

there is almost no way, late in life, that they can build any kind of nest egg, especially now.

[certainot]

14. yeah that's the real story, and in a pandemic. fucking republicans

[GETPLANING]

16. Know what makes America Great?

Americans

[BamaRefugee]

18. I imagine that Trump wouldn't consider Carlos Valdez an "American"...obviously a rapist or murderer

with a guilty conscience.

[mtngirl47]

19. America where you can work 'til you die!

Nice story!

[Ron Obvious]

20. "Good lawd, what kind of country are we that an 89 y.o. has to work to make ends meet"

God, exactly! That's exactly what I think when I read stories like this which are almost uniformly presented as feel-good stories.

I'm sure most elderly people would prefer to stay home and visit their grandkids rather than deliver pizzas, work at McDonalds, or be Walmart Greeters. Those are NOT feel-good stories; they're an indictment of our society.

[moonscape]

24. There was a man in my community years ago who

got wiped out by Madoff. Bankrupt. 92 years old. The independent, upscale local grocery market hired him as a greeter. They had never had one before, but did it in order to hire him.

He was such a lovely man, but was all so heartbreaking.

[demigoddess]

23. and to think that republicans want to kill Social Security!!!

What can they be thinking?

[live love laugh]

32. They thinking we can all drop dead. nt

[Kali]

26. damn allergies

[live love laugh]

31. 😢😢