A New Zealand man has been praised for his act of kindness after letting a stranger sleep on his couch.
Gordon Pryor, from Mangawhai – halfway between Auckland and Whangarei- woke on Saturday morning to find a young man fast asleep in his lounge room.
But instead of waking the stranger, who had taken a bean bag and used it as a blanket while he slept, Mr Pryor, 60, made himself some coffee and let the man sleep.
‘It was a mathematical equation, you know?’, Mr Pryor told the NZ Herald.
New Zealand man Gordon Pryor woke on Saturday morning to find a young man (pictured) fast asleep in his lounge room
Instead of waking the stranger, who had taken a bean bag and used it as a blanket while he slept, Mr Pryor let the young man sleep for a while
‘Try and wake him up, argue with him, sort him out, “what’s the problem?”. Or, “s**t, look the kid needs to sleep, just watch him, just make sure he’s okay”.’
The fishing charter skipper said he wasn’t ‘unduly concerned’ at letting the young man sleep, but he was curious.
Mr Pryor took a couple of photos of the strange man and posted them to his community Facebook page, asking locals if they knew his uninvited guest.
While most people praised the 60-year-old for his kindness, they were just as intrigued at how the man ended up on a rural property in the middle of the night.
Mr Pryor eventually woke the man up, tapping him on his shoulder and offering coffee.
‘He said “that’d be good, cheers”, so I said to him “there’s the f***ing jug, you get over there and sort it out because you’ve had a free night’s kip and I’m not making you coffee”,’ Mr Pryor said.
Mr Pryor eventually woke the man up and, after learning his story, snapped a selfie with his guest
The fishing charter skipper said he wasn’t ‘unduly concerned’ at letting the young man sleep, but he was curious
After the pair sat down, Mr Pryor learned the man’s name – Louis Coetze, a University of Canterbury engineering student originally from Taranaki.
Mr Coetze had been at the Northern Bass festival in Kaiwaka when he caught a shuttle bus, hoping to get to Waipu where he was staying.
After realising the bus would not get him home, he cut through farms and bush and ended up at Mr Pryor’s house, where he entered through an unlocked door.
Despite the instrusion, Mr Pryor said his guest was a ‘humble, nice kid’ and snapped a quick selfie to post on the local Facebook page.
Mr Coetze was eventually picked up by a friend, but not before Mr Pryor told him there were ‘quite a few girls who want you to stay at their place’.