Community Bands Together To Help Father of Five

In Raleigh, North Carolina, a community is coming together to help an arrested father of five children. Victor King was arrested Tuesday, but he’s already back at work thanks to the kindness and generosity of others.

King was arrested for leaving his five children, all under the age of eight, home alone. A complete stranger bailed King out so he could return to work to try and make ends meet for his family.

King’s wife has cancer, and the medical bills continue to pile up, and it didn’t make matters easier when he was charged with child abuse for leaving his children alone so he could work to pay for some of those bills and feed his kids. The 30-year-old father reportedly told a judge Wednesday that his wife was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and that he had to work to support her and his children.

However, King claims he did not leave his kids alone.  He left them in the care of a neighbor, who then left the children alone. He works at a nearby Chipotle, reports said. When a nosy woman obviously not minding her own business called 911 to report that the children were home alone for the second day in a row, King was arrested. The woman said she had offered King help finding a babysitter and he refused it, according to the station.

The judge kept King’s bail at $25,000 after a prosecutor reportedly cited a prior conviction for child cruelty in 2011 and the bail was paid by a complete stranger so King could keep working to help his wife and children.

A  GoFundMe has been started for the family by a local teacher and many in the community have donated to help King. The fundraiser has raised more than $7,000. Rikki Hilliard, the woman who created the fundraiser, says GoFundMe took the page down because she wasn’t a family member but has now put it back up after King confirmed he is okay with it.

“We just need to help support this man who is working so hard. As a divorced single parent, it’s beyond tough managing home and work,” Rikki Hilliard wrote on the fundraiser. “It takes a village to raise a child. Please let this man know that his efforts are not in vain.”

Hilliard told ABCNews that in these contentious times it’s uplifting to see people from all walks of life reach out to a family they don’t know.

“After Charlottesville, I was really saddened and I felt really bad about the world and I wanted to create some good. And my heart is definitely warmed by the thought of that many people across the country who’ve been touched by helping this family out,” Hilliard said.

Kindness creates a ripple effect that we all are desperately needing right now in the world.