LATHAM, N.Y. (NEWS10) – A local family is applauding a New York State Trooper, who they say went above and beyond the call of duty during a recent personal tragedy.

Just around midnight on Monday night, Nancy Giffen was in bed.

“I heard a knocking, loud on the door,” she says.

Her husband, Jed Giffen, drives trucks for UPS. On that night he was on his way to Syracuse, and she was home alone. Turns out it was New York State Trooper, Joe Germano.

“My heart dropped because all I could think about was my husband,” Nancy says.

He was there with sad news. Her husband’s brother, who was living in Florida, had been killed in a car. Startled by the news, she told him that Jed was on the road.

Meanwhile, almost an hour away, Jed was driving on the thruway. His phone rang. It was Trooper Germano who asked him to get off the nearest exit and wait for him.

“He made me pull off the road before he told me, it was pretty devastating.”

Not only that but,

“That trooper, God bless him, he came 50 miles out there to pick me up.”

Germano didn’t want Jed to keep working. So he personally made the commute out to meet him.

He also arranged to have another driver meet there and continue driving the truck.

“You just don’t get that from people,” Jed says.

Back home, Nancy was grateful for the Trooper’s compassion. A stranger willing to go out of his way.

“I mean it really does restore your faith in human nature,” Nancy says.

Jed says he will head to Florida for the funeral services later this week. He and his wife pan to give Trooper Germano a card to thank him for his actions.