Despite the initial PR grab on McDonald’s part to get in touch with Charles Ramsey, the Cleveland man who was instrumental in saving three women who had been kidnapped after he noticed one of them while on his porch eating a Big Mac. While McD’s hasn’t followed up, the man’s hometown restaurants are instead issuing him the opportunity to dine on hamburgers free of charge for the rest of his life.

According to The Cleveland Plain Dealer, more than a dozen area restaurants are pledging to supply Ramsey with a burger anytime he drops in, in tribute to his willingness to stop eating and help one of the victims escape from the house she’d been held in with her daughter and two other women for years.

The restaurant where Ramsey works also created a special burger to honor his heroic deed.

“It’s an 8-ounce burger of Certified Angus Beef, with a secret sauce,” says the chef-co-owner Chris Hodgson.

That spurred other business owners, including one man who operates four of the restaurants that are participating in the tribute.

“We want to honor our local hero with local food,” the owner explained. “He stopped his meal midway through to help those women. We’re now making sure he has other opportunities to go out and fully enjoy his burger.”

To get his burgers for life, Ramsey will be given a single-edition “Chuck Card” that’s stamped in his honor, and can be used to get a free burger at any of the participating restaurants.

And while McDonald’s tweet about Ramsey seemed a bit inappropriate and somewhat like a bid to exploit the situation, local restaurants coming together to honor one of their own feels just about right. No good deed goes unburgered, like my mother always says.

Charles Ramsey, who helped free Cleveland kidnap victims, gets burgers for life [Cleveland Plain Dealer]

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