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Cleveland Hero Charles Ramsey Rewarded With Burgers For Life

Charles Ramsey on the day three young women (and one of the women's daughters) were rescued from a Cleveland home. He gained fame for his accounts of what happened.
Scott Shaw
/
The Plain Dealer /Landov
Charles Ramsey on the day three young women (and one of the women's daughters) were rescued from a Cleveland home. He gained fame for his accounts of what happened.

Charles Ramsey, the neighbor who helped rescue three young women from a Cleveland home where authorities say they had been held captive and brutalized for about a decade, "will enjoy free burgers for life" in honor of his actions, The Plain Dealer reports.

Ramsey gained instant fame for his animated account of what happened on May 6 after he heard victim Amanda Berry calling for help from inside a home in his neighborhood. With Ramsey's help, Berry and her 6-year-old daughter were able to get out. Minutes later, police were able to rescue the other two young women who had been inside — Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight.

Ramsey became something of legend for saying "I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran to a black man's arms."

He also told reporters about how he had been been eating a Big Mac when he heard Berry's shouts. That inspired the restaurant where he's a dishwasher to create the Ramsey Burger. And now, according to the Plain Dealer, "more than a dozen Northeast Ohio restaurants have pledged an offer of a burger anytime Ramsey wants to stop by and dig in."

He's going to be given a "Chuck Card" that he can use at the restaurants. According to the Plain Dealer:

"Ramsey, who has been traveling during a paid leave from his job at Hodges [restaurant], was not available for comment. The Chuck Card will be formally presented to him when he returns to Cleveland."

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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  • Charles Ramsey says he had no clue that three young women who had been missing for years were inside a home in Cleveland. He thought Amanda Berry, whose cries led him to the porch, had died long ago. Ramsey tells a vivid story. Watch the video.
  • Charles Ramsey, who was credited with helping three kidnapped women in Cleveland, has been immortalized in ink — on a local man's leg. Tattoo artist Stephen Munhollon says he was caught up in the celebration of the women's rescue. He sat for five hours while another artist worked on Ramsey's likeness, according to Fox 8.
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