Virden Manitoba - What started out as an ordinary small town fall evening for Garry Remple turned into one he will never forget.
 
Remple, who works as the equipment manager for the Virden Oil Capitals hockey team, was walking home from a game last Thursday when he heard something that caught his attention in the late evening darkness in the small Manitoba town, about 270 kilometres west of Winnipeg.
 
"I came out of the rink and heard some kind of noise like somebody was yelling for help," he said.
 
"I waited for a few minutes and checked again and he said help again."
 
Remple followed the calls for help and found a man on the ground beside the railroad tracks, which run through the centre of town.
 
He appeared to be in pain.
 
Beside the Tracks
 
"He was right beside the railroad tracks," Remple said.
 
"If he would have put his hands over he we would have been on the tracks."
 
"He tripped over a rock," Remple added.
 
"He fell over a rock when we was walking home and it was pretty dark."
 
Worried that a train might soon come down the tracks, Remple sprang into action.
 
He first carefully moved the man onto some grass nearby and then had a co-worker from the Alexandra Hotel, where Remple also works, call an ambulance.
 
Remple stayed and comforted the man.
 
Remple said he doesn't know who the man is but has seen him in the hotel.
 
He was told the man broke his hip after tripping and falling.
 
Man Thanked Remple
 
"He just told me thanks and then they put him on the ambulance and that's all he said."
 
Remple said the man was on the ground for about two hours before he came along.
 
While no trains passed by during that time, one showed up not long after the ambulance left the scene.
 
He fears the incident could have had a different outcome had he not come along when he did.
 
"It was close. If I wouldn't have seen it he could have been left there until morning," Remple said.
 
"It was pretty cold too."
 
Staff at the Alexandra Hotel praised Remple's efforts, calling them heroic.
 
"Garry saved a man's life tonight, and we couldn't be more proud of him," said a post on the hotel's Facebook page.
 
"Thank you Garry, you're truly a hero!"
 
Remple said it was his first time he's helped someone who was in that much trouble and wouldn't hesitate again.
 
"I was proud. I was proud of myself, "Remple added.
 
"I'd probably do it again."
 
Riley Laychuk.

OKthePK Joint Bar Editor:  Fourty-nine other trespassers this year weren't so lucky.