Ready, Willing & Able | The Doe Fund

The business owners had no idea they were also getting a crime fighter.

On Saturday, Kenneth Kelly, a 37-year-old worker with the Doe Fund, helped catch a thief running away with a portable DVD player.

Kelly had just started working in downtown Flushing six days beforehand as part of a new program for the area.

Earlier this year, 11 businessmen decided they wanted to tackle Flushing's perpetual problem: trash. In October, the group, called Destination Flushing Inc., signed a one-year, $60,000 contract with the Doe Fund, a non-profit group which employees homeless men and women to help clean the city streets.

Kelly was working on Roosevelt Avenue off Prince Street Saturday afternoon when he heard a shout.

"I was getting garbage, and I heard a yell, ?Hey you!'" Kelly said. "A man was chasing the guy, saying ?he stole from my store, he stole from my store!'"

As the man ran passed him, Kelly decided to step in.

"I grabbed him by the shoulder, I threw him in a hallway and I got him in a headlock," Kelly said.

Kelly then waited for the police to arrive. They arrested the man, and Kelly returned to his work.

Like many of the Doe Fund's workers, Kelly has had a troubled past.

In the early 1990s, the Bronx native was convicted of robbery and given a sentence of six years to life.

Earlier this year he was released from prison.

"I felt my freedom was more important to me than anything, that what I had done was very stupid," Kelly said.

Kelly then turned to the Doe Fund in order to get back to the working world. He now works eight-hour days for $5.50 an hour and lives in a Doe Fund shelter in Harlem.

After helping with the arrest, Kelly said he felt like he had "become a good citizen."

"I felt right now that I changed my life around," he said.

Ricky Yan, the owner of the video store who chased after the thief, shook Kelly's hand and thanked him for the help.

"I just appreciate it," Yan said. "He really helped me out."

Kelly said he would be on the lookout for trouble in the future.

"Will I stop him again it if happens? Yes I will," he said.

Click here to read a letter from Video Kings store owner Mr. Yan to The Doe Fund.