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An American expat in Singapore has taken to YouTube on Sunday, Sep. 5 to appeal for help in locating a Good Samaritan here who lent him and his family an umbrella in the pouring rain the day before.

Using YouTube to reach out

In the YouTube video, "Dear Singapore, I need your help!", Travis, who is also known as "American in Singapore", explained that he hoped to leverage the power of social media to find and thank the mystery man who offered his umbrella without hesitation.

Travis has dedicated his YouTube channel to offer his take on life in Singapore having moved here in August 2020.

What happened

Travis shared that he and his family were walking home post-dinner on Saturday, Sep. 4 from the Duxton Hill, when it started to rain.

Travis and his family were near Tanjong Pagar and walking in the direction of Tiong Bahru.

According to him, they were walking along the Greenway at that point, and took cover under an underpass in hopes the rain would stop.

However, an hour passed, and the family got impatient and decided to brave the rain anyway.

He said: "We didn't have any umbrellas, we didn't have any coats, we didn't have anything."

Some 10 minutes in, the family passed by a group of cyclists, in the midst of what Travis described as a "soggy walk".

Met a group of cyclists

This was when the mystery Good Samaritan and Travis met.

One of the cyclists on a foldable bicycle offered Travis his umbrella, which the American expat explained he initially declined, as the family were already wet.

However, the mystery man insisted, appealing to Travis to take the umbrella as they had a child with them.

The man then handed them the yellow umbrella, with a Cheers logo on it, which the family accepted, and left.

Kindness that shouldn't go unrecognised

While noting that the cyclist had not expected anything in return, Travis explained that he wanted to locate the man as "that kind of kindness shouldn't go unrecognised".

He added: "So here's where I need your help Singapore, I want to find this person who gave me the umbrella. I want to return this umbrella, I want to thank him in person, and I want to buy him a coffee."

Travis elaborated that while he was aware this was a small thing, and the umbrella likely cost no more than S$10, he wanted to reward the man's kind act in some way.

He said: "It's about bringing attention to someone who did something kind when someone needed help."

People in Singapore have been very kind

Travis also said in his video that he has been on the receiving end of kindness from people in Singapore ever since he arrived.

If he had a query or wanted to find out where was the best place to get what he needed, people were quick to point him in the right direction.

Good Samaritan's profile

After putting their heads together, Travis and his family came up with a short description of the Good Samaritan in the hopes of finding him:

According to Travis, this might not be the best or most helpful description of someone in a country with more than 5 million people, but it was what he got based off a 15-second interaction.

If you are the mystery man, or have any information on him, you can contact Travis at [email protected].

If you are the Good Samaritan but is shy and have no intention of appearing in a video but don't mind reaching out to Travis, you can also contact him.

Here's the full video:

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Top image via American in Singapore YouTube