She spotted addict with her stolen bag across the road and confronted him— his response completely transformed their lives
People find their closest friends in school, public gatherings or even while surfing online. But this story of friendship is a little different compared to others. According to NBC affiliate KARE 11, Baltimore residents Kaitlyn Smith and Aeric McCoy met under one of the most unusual circumstances that can be considered divine intervention. It all started with Smith's car getting broken into by a burglar. The burglar found spare keys in the glove compartment that were recently copied by Smith and used to break into her house.
The burglar couldn't steal much except her purse off the countertop before getting chased away by her dog. Smith took urgent action to cancel all her credit cards and moved on with her life. Surprisingly enough, that wasn't the first time she had fallen victim to a crime since moving to Baltimore. A week after that incident, she found a man walking outside her property with her stolen bag in his hand. Smith approached the man and realized he was looking for the owner of the bag. The man introduced himself as Aeric McCoy.
McCoy was going through a rough patch in his life. He was homeless for more than a year and was addicted to heroin. He went through each day living in abandoned houses and shelters and committing petty crimes to acquire money for drugs. “Two weeks before I met Kait, I was like, ‘God, I can’t do this no more. I cannot live like this no more,’” McCoy recalled to the outlet. He found Smith's purse discarded in an alley and he thought about what his mom once told him. McCoy's mom had imparted upon him to never touch a woman's purse. McCoy felt like he should return the purse to its rightful owner.
Smith was relieved to find her purse again and she wanted to return the favor. That was the beginning of an unlikely friendship. McCoy came clean about his heroin addiction and had problems holding a job for long. “Do you want to be a drug addict anymore?” Smith asked him at that point, per the outlet. Smith proposed if McCoy could find a rehab facility that would take his insurance, she would be happy to help him get into treatment. “I think I’m going to die soon,” he admitted to Smith. So, Smith started a GoFundMe to raise funds for McCoy's treatment and was able to amass $16,000.
She also drove him to the airport and put him on a plane to Florida where the rehab center was located. Throughout his treatment. McCoy stayed in touch with his new friend through phone calls. The man shared about his daughter, his failed landscape business, a car accident that left him with back pain and how he got hooked on heroin. McCoy eventually returned to Baltimore after finishing his treatment but struggled to find a job. Meanwhile, Smith's interaction with McCoy changed her outlook toward drug addiction and she started gathering knowledge about addiction and its treatments.
In 2019, Smith left her job in medical sales and started working as an addiction treatment consultant with Delphi Behavioral Health Group. She traveled around her state and Washington D.C. to educate people about interacting with people who are addicted to drugs. Smith found purpose in starting her own advocacy group for people who dealt with addictions. She named the group AAdvocate to pay homage to both McCoy and Alcoholics Anonymous. The duo remained close friends after their fateful encounter and McCoy was sober, working as a handyman and landscaper. Smith continued to use McCoy's journey to recovery as an inspiration for others. “We definitely changed each others’ lives,” Smith concluded to the outlet.