When Alan Paul spotted a confused and disorientated elderly lady approaching his house earlier this week with her dog asking for directions, he did what any good human would do and accompanied her on her way to make sure arrived safely at her destination.
However when she started to get more and more confused, the concerned teen, from Inverclyde in Scotland, came across something that helped him to assess the seriousness of the situation: a simple dog collar.
It wasn't any old dog collar though; this one explained that the lady was in fact a sufferer of dementia, and the dog was there to look after her.
"The collar read the address and the name of the woman. It also read "I'm walking my dementia friend...it also had a phone number and a buzzer that read "S.O.S". Thankfully I noticed this," Alan posted on his Facebook page.
On phoning the number and establishing an address, the boy returned the lady to the safe hands of her concerned yet thankful daughter.
"After a long walk we got to her house and as I entered there were signs on every door reading "do not go out on your own, the dogs can only walk for 10-15 minutes. The woman was extremely thankful and apologetic," the post read.
"If you ever see anyone who looks panicked or confused, calmly approach them and assist in anyway possible...if it wasn't for the dog's collar I would not have been able to get her home and would have to resort to calling the police."
Judging by an edit on the post, friends were concerned that there wasn't enough security to keep the lady safe, but Alan put worries to rest posting: "Thank you all for the concern regarding the address on the collar.
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But the family have installed cameras, whenever the front door of the house is opened they are notified and it's recorded. They have taken the correct measures to ensure she is safe."
Essential to raising awareness of such conditions and situations, the post has now raked up more than 8 thousand shares and 1100 comments. Read the full post here and then go on and share your heart out: