Year later, DUI death leads to free rides for drinkers

An Ohio man gave some people what they couldn’t give themselves on Saturday night — a ride home after they had a few too many drinks.

And he did it all for free to honor a man who had been killed exactly a year earlier by a drunk driver, according to BuzzFeed.

Alex Sheen, founder of the Because I Said I Would group, a social movement that is dedicated to bettering humanity though promises made and kept, stood outside a bar on Saturday night with a sign that offered drunk people a free ride home.

“Hi, my name is Alex,” his sign read. “If you have been drinking tonight, I’d like to offer you a free ride home. Someone I know killed a man while drinking and driving one year ago tonight. In honor of the man who died, I’d like to help keep the roads safe. I will even bring you back to your car tomorrow. If will get you home safely.”

Sheen published his evening adventures on his Imgur page.

“The first group I picked up was a bachelorette party,” Sheen wrote below a photo of him and four women. “I let them play their own music. No joke, they played ‘Call Me Maybe’ twice in a row and not on accident.”

He also drove some other people home Saturday night including a couple who had just become homeowners and a man who claimed to have helped create the “We are the World” remake music video to benefit Haiti in 2010.

Sheen wouldn’t accept any tips for the rides, but he ended up with some anyway. The mysterious Hollywood man, Jason, wanted to tip, so he told Sheen he would make a donation to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

One of the women from the bachelorette party group was sneaky and left him $38. Sheen wrote that he will be donating the money to M.A.D.D. in memory of the man killed.

The man who was referenced in Sheen’s sign is 22-year-old Matthew Cordle, who killed 61-year-old Vincent Canzani, a photographer, when he was drinking and driving on June 22, 2013.

Last fall, Sheen helped Cordle record a confession after he contacted Sheen and told him that he wanted to take full responsibility for his actions. Sheen recorded Cordle’s confession and published it on YouTube on Sept. 3, 2013.

According to the YouTube video description, Cordle was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide seven days after the video was released. Cordle was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison on Oct. 23, 2013.

Contact Kira Terry at kterry@reviewjournal.com. Find her on Twitter: @kiraterry