The man who is being hailed as a hero for rescuing the lives of three women kidnapped for a decade says that he would like any reward money to be turned over to the victims.
Charles Ramsey became an instant Internet sensation on Monday when he helped free Amanda Berry, Georgina DeJesus and Michele Knight from the house next to his where they had been trapped for around 10 years.
“Bro, I knew something was wrong when a little, pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms,” he told WEWS following the rescue. “Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway.”
On Tuesday, CNN host Anderson Cooper asked Ramsey what it felt like to find out that he had been living next to kidnapping victims.
“See, that’s why now I’m having trouble sleeping,” he explained. “See, up until yesterday, the only thing that kept me from losing sleep was the lack of money. See what I’m saying? So now that that’s going on, and I could have done this last year, not this hero stuff, just do the right thing.”
“Because there’s a lot of people, they’re saying you’re a hero,” the CNN host noted.
“No, no, no. Bro, I’m a Christian, an American, and just like you,” Ramsey insisted. “We bleed the same blood, put our pants on the same way. It’s just that you got to put that — being a coward and 'I don’t want to get in nobody’s business,' you got to put that away for a minute. You have to have cojones, bro.”
Cooper noted that the FBI had offered a reward for at least two of the victims.
“I tell you what you do, give it to them,” Ramsey said. “Because if folks been following this case since last night, you been following me since last night, you know I got a job anyway.”
“Just went picked it up ... this paycheck,” he added, producing an envelope from his pocket. “What that address say?”
“Where was them girls living? Right next door to this paycheck. So yes, take that reward and give it to — that little girl came out the house and she was crying.”
Watch this video from CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, broadcast May 7, 2013.
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