Richard Pulley, the 78-year-old DoorDash delivery man who raised $1 million on GoFundMe after the Tennessee man’s story went viral, said he will return to work once everything calms down because he loves being useful. Brittany Smith saw the 78-year-old man leaving a Starbucks order at the door through her doorbell camera and she felt bad for the elderly man. Brittany called her husband and sent him the video of Puli and posted it on Facebook asking for help identifying the man. The identity of the elderly delivery man was quickly revealed on social media and Puli’s story went viral such that he started working full-time for DoorDash and has completed 6,000 deliveries to date. He has started working after retirement to pay the bills because of his wife’s expensive medication. Pulley said his wife worked for an insurance company and when the company let her go, it left them in trouble. He has Social Security, he said, but it’s not enough to cover all the bills. Smith said she went to Pulley’s home to leave an extra cash tip of $200, but she was getting messages on social media as people were interested in starting a fundraiser for Richard on GoFundMe. The result was astonishing as 32,000 donors raised $957,000 for Richard. DoorDash CEO Tony Xu donated $20,000 to fundraise for Richard. The DoorDash team spoke with him and thanked him for his commitment to his work. “I taught myself to be a good employee again, although the last few shifts have been hard because people stop and take pictures with me and all kinds of things,” said Pulley, who plans to go back to work despite the comfortable settlement for himself and his wife. He said that although he started the work for financial reasons, he also enjoys exercising along with performing.
