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23 January 2024
POCAHONTAS COUNTY, WV (WOWK) — The quick thinking of a group of local Boy Scouts saved a Kentucky man from freezing to death on Saturday.
A 67-year-old man named Greg Painter says he was driving to the Cranberry Glades for a camping trip on Friday night. But on his way to the botanical area, his car got stuck in a pile of snow around 7 p.m.
“I tried to back up. Nothing happened. I tried to go forward. Nothing happened,” Painter said. “I just got back in the Jeep and thought I’d wait until daylight to find out what was going on.”
During this time, the temperatures were single digits, and it was dark out. Painter says he feared the worst.
“I wasn’t sure I could make it,” Painter said. “So I said a prayer.”
Painter was stuck and freezing. Even the water bottles he packed turned to ice.
“It kept snowing. The wind picked up. I sat in the driver’s seat all night, and the wind was howling,” Painter said. “I start the Jeep every so often to warm back up. I was completely spent. I couldn’t feel my feet. I couldn’t feel my hands.”
Painter says he waited until sunrise, then abandoned his car and set off on foot, hoping to find warmth. After a long three hours walking through a foot of snow, Painter found the Boy Scouts camping.
“I just knew I couldn’t give up,” Painter said. “I knew it was still a long way to help and I didn’t know they were there.”
Jon Dudley was the first person Painter spotted. Dudley is the District Commissioner for the Buckskin Council Boy Scouts of America and was on an annual winter camping trip for Troops 2, 59, and 289. He says once he spotted Painter, they brought him into their warming tent.
“He was visibly shaken, and he had told me that he thought he was a, maybe even getting dehydrated,” Dudley said. “I said we’ve got water. Let’s let’s get you inside here and get you warmed up a little bit.”
Then a team of Boy Scouts drove Painter back to his Jeep and dug it out. From there, Painter was able to drive back home safely to Louisa, Kentucky.
Painter thanks the Boy Scouts for saving his life.
“I was freezing. There they were. It was like a prayer answered.”
But the scouts say they were just living their motto, “Be prepared.”