It wasn’t all bad
■ Opened just last year, Detroit’s 27th Letter Books was happy to take a series of orders for $35,000 worth of expensive medical and engineering textbooks. But in May, the four co-owners learned the buyer had used a stolen credit card. Their insurer suggested they close shop. Instead, 27th Letter turned to its neighbors for help—hoping its weekly open mic nights, book clubs, and story-time sessions had made an impression. Indeed they had, and the shop earned more money in a fundraiser than it had lost in the scam.
■ Nicholas Bostic was driving in Lafayette, Ind., last week when he spotted a house engulfed in flames.The 25-year-old realized he didn’t have his phone with him to call 911, so he ran inside himself and discovered four children upstairs. Bostic escorted the kids to safety, but they told him their sister was still missing. Bostic sprinted back into the flames, found the frightened 6-year-old, and broke through an upstairs window, just as authorities arrived. Remarkably, none of the children were injured. Bostic was treated for smoke inhalation but is out of the hospital. “It was all worth it,” Bostic said. “Waking up every morning I have something to remind me of why I’m here, still alive.”
■ When 17-year-old Adrian Rodriquez found a purse in a Chula Vista, Calif., supermarket parking lot, he thought the best way to get it back to the owner was to check the address on the ID and bring it over himself. A visitor at the house took the purse, and the homeowner Melina Martinez, brought it back to her old roommate, Eliana Martin.The two tracked Adrian down by posting an image from their Ring doorbell, then set up a portal for reward donations—now up to $17,000. “Every parent right now hopes that their children grow up to be just like this young gentleman,” Marquez said.