On November 14, 2012, NYPD officer Larry DePrimo noticed a man standing barefoot near Times Square. The officer was wearing winter socks and boots himself, yet still felt the cold. The man in front of him had neither.
DePrimo went to a nearby shoe store, bought insulated boots and thermal socks, and returned to help him put them on. He paid about $75 after a store discount.
A tourist’s photograph made that quiet act famous. But the story also became a reminder that a photograph can show real kindness without explaining a person’s whole life.
Featured photograph: Times Square in December 2012, not the encounter. Photo: Downtowngal, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Original photograph used without editorial alteration.
An officer noticed the bare feet
DePrimo, then 25, was assigned to the Sixth Precinct. Contemporary Newsday reporting described how he saw the man on Seventh Avenue near 44th Street.
He walked to a Skechers store on 42nd Street and bought the footwear with his own money. The purchase was practical: warm socks and boots suited to winter weather.
DePrimo returned, knelt down and helped the man with the new footwear. He later described the man’s broad smile. He also offered coffee, which the man declined.
There was no planned ceremony or announcement. The officer said he had not realized someone was taking a picture.
Photo: Oto Zapletal, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. Original photograph used without editorial alteration.
A visitor captured the moment
Jennifer Foster, visiting from Arizona, photographed the exchange on her phone. She sent the picture and an account of what she had seen to the NYPD.
UPI’s November 30 report described the enormous response after the department shared the image on Facebook. Hundreds of thousands of people liked it, and many others passed it along.
The image showed an officer down at street level, helping someone whose discomfort he had noticed. That simple scene traveled much farther than either man could have expected.
Store manager Jose Cano also spoke about the purchase. The store’s discount helped DePrimo buy the boots, making the kindness a small shared effort.
The person behind the viral photograph
Later reporting identified the man as Jeffrey Hillman. The earliest stories had described him as homeless, but follow-up coverage showed that description did not tell the full story.
NPR’s follow-up, carried by NHPR, reported that Hillman was seen barefoot again. He said he had hidden the expensive boots because he feared someone might take them.
Further reporting discussed his access to housing and benefits. Those details matter when retelling the photograph today. It is more accurate to call him a barefoot man than to treat an early assumption about his housing as a settled fact.
They also do not erase what DePrimo saw that night: bare feet in cold weather.
Photo: Prayitno from Los Angeles, USA, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Original photograph used without editorial alteration.
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A gesture that can stand on its own
The photograph did not prove that one purchase transformed Hillman’s life. Nor did it give strangers a complete account of his circumstances.
It documented something smaller and clear. DePrimo noticed an immediate need, spent his own money and returned with help.
That is the part of the story that remains supported. A man needed shoes in that moment, and someone stopped to offer them.