Special needs man left out in the cold outside care facility

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - A man with special needs was left out in the cold overnight. The man was never picked up by a transportation service that brings him home from a care facility. Now his family wants to make sure this doesn't happen again.

His family is now looking for answers after what appears to be a big mishap yesterday that left the man with no way to get home. He goes to the care center every day, and he ended up sleeping outside overnight. He told his family the only way he was able to stay warm, was thanks to two homeless men who gave him a sleeping bag and stayed with him until sunrise.

"Cheeers closed up the building and left him waiting on the curb for his transportation and nobody every picked him up, and he sat outside all night last night," said Melisa Sabala.

Melisa Sabala's 52-year-old brother Jimmy, who has the mental capacity of a 12-year-old, spent the night out in the cold after the cab that was supposed to take him home from the care center he attends called Cheeers never showed up.

"And we send them there hoping that they are going to be well taken care of as if it was their loved one, and obviously that wasn't the case," said Sabala.

Jimmy was found outside around seven this morning when employees showed up for work. He told his sister he got through the night thanks to homeless strangers.

"He said that sometime at night after sunset two homeless men went and sat with him and lent him a sleeping bag, they sat with him until sunrise and then they said they had to go because they weren't allowed to be on the premises," she said.

Melisa says they took Jimmy to the hospital to be checked out this morning and that he's going to be okay, but she wonders what would have happened if not for the kindness of the two strangers.

"I wanted to know what they were going to do differently to make sure this didn't happen to anyone else's family. Because I guarantee you, this won't be happening to my family. My brother won't be going back to Cheeers; he said himself he doesn't want to go back to Cheeers," said Sabala.

The care facility did not issue a comment on the situation. Jimmy is safely back home with his family; his brothers are planning on going back to the neighborhood where it happened, hoping to find the two men who helped Jimmy to thank them and give them sweaters and blankets.