Cops Approached A Homeless Man With A Crucial Piece Of Information About His Past

In downtown Tampa in 2015, a man named John Helinski couldn't fall asleep. Barely sheltered under a pile of cardboard boxes, Helinski couldn't ignore the noise of the city buses as they roared past. Anyone who walked past the cardboard boxes was probably completely unaware that Helinski was even there. It was a meager existence, true, but at that moment, Helinski's life was on the verge of changing forever...

Living on the streets

Interestingly, Helinski was born in Poland before moving to the U.S. Unfortunately, the American Dream wasn't easily attainable for the immigrant. In about 2012, Helinski wound up on the streets of Tampa, Florida when all his personal identification records were stolen from him. The streets became his home for approximately three years.

Forced to fend for himself

Tampa, of course, is famous for its sandy white beaches and popular tourist attractions. Helinski didn't have the cushy tourist experience, however. With no way of proving his identity, it was tough for Helinski to even land a spot in a homeless shelter. He was forced to fend for himself as best he could on the streets.

"No one would see me"

“I just managed on my own… I remember having a cardboard box, and sleeping by the bus stop,” he told ABC Action News. Heartbreakingly, he added, “I’d be underneath the benches there, and no one would see me.” To the wider world, Helinski was more or less invisible.

He couldn't prove his identity

Of course, without any sort of identification, it was all too easy for Helinski to fall through the cracks of the system. A further complication was the fact that he had been born outside the U.S., making his identity even harder to verify.