Good samaritan - good news!

A proud father has identified the good samaritan who brought petrol and a warm pie to an elderly man stranded on a Wellington motorway.

Tom Keogh wrote to The Dominion Post after being touched by the simple act of kindness.

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It was a reminder that many young people were fine examples for society, he said. "Nobody ever writes in unless it's bad news. They should not all be tarred with the same brush. I just wanted to indicate that the world's not all bad." Mr Keogh hoped to find the good samaritan to thank him in person, and pay him $30 for his trouble.

Yesterday he was identified as Titahi Bay man Jacob Burns, 20, by his father, Paul.

"I'm very proud of him. I read it in the paper yesterday, then my mother texted him [to check]. She thought it sounded just like Jacob." Jacob Burns, 20, said he passed Mr Keogh on the motorway between Tawa and Porirua last Tuesday, during the polar blast that hit the country. "I saw that it was an elderly man. I thought he must be stopped there for a reason."

Mr Burns drove on to Porirua, turned around then came back to Mr Keogh. "He told me he'd run out of petrol, so I went and got him some, and a pie too, because it was freezing."

Mr Burns, a father of two who works two jobs and has also started a graffiti art business called GM Designs, insisted he did not want any money.

"You don't need to be paid for some things."

Mr Keogh and Mr Burns met up yesterday at a Tawa pub.

Mr Burns again refused payment, so Mr Keogh planned to donate the $30 to the Life Flight Trust, which operates the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.