‘Dad is coming for you:’ Man sells truck to rescue sons from Puerto Rico after Maria
Guillermo Class called everyone he could after Hurricane Maria, desperate for information about his two sons who live in Puerto Rico. The Hartford, Conn., man plead for updates on social media.
“I’m Guillermo Class, and I’m asking anyone that knows Joemar Class and William Class, I’m trying to get in touch with them,” Class said in a video posted to Facebook on Sept. 22, two days after the hurricane hit the island. “If anyone knows anything about them, if anyone has talked to them, seen them ... There hasn’t been any communication and I’m very worried.”
When he was able to get ahold of his two boys, who live in Puerto Rico with his wife, Class decided the conditions were so poor he had to bring them back to the States, he told Fox61. The boys were born in Hartford, but Class hadn’t seen his sons in about five years, he told WNPR.
How to get the money for plane tickets? Class decided he would sell his truck for the cash. He posted the 2003 Jeep Liberty on OfferUp for $2,500, saying he was selling the vehicle to rescue his teenage boys from Puerto Rico.
“Joemar and Willy, dad is coming for you guys, ok? I love you,” Class said in another Facebook video.
Class told WNPR that he sold the Jeep for $1,700.
“I sold my truck because it’s what you gotta do. I gotta get my kids out of there until Puerto Rico gets back on its feet,” Class said in the Facebook video, before turning in his old license plates to the DMV. “If you have family out there you gotta do what you gotta do, you got something you don’t need, sell it, get your family out.”
Class said he’d take public transportation from now on. According to Fox61, he recently had open heart surgery and wasn’t working.
Class reunited with his sons in San Juan and brought them back to Hartford on Monday. Their mother remained on the island to care for her father, who was injured during the storm.
“I was scared,” in Puerto Rico, Joemar Class told Fox61. “I was thinking about my father ... thank God, we’re here.”
This story was originally published October 24, 2017 at 4:40 PM with the headline "‘Dad is coming for you:’ Man sells truck to rescue sons from Puerto Rico after Maria."