UPDATED — What was just another day at the office has resulted in a bit of attention for Pete Engler, who owns Wichita Ground Services.
Engler does ground handling for Frontier Airlines.
One recent customer flew to Wichita to go whitetail hunting but arrived without his wallet. He was able to retrieve his checked hunting gun thanks to a claim ticket, but he wasn’t able to rent a car to drive the hour to where he would be staying.
“I listened to what he had to say, and I said, ‘You know what? I’ll take you,’ ” Engler says.
“He goes, ‘Really?’ I could tell he was a little leery.”
It was 10:30 p.m.
Engler never thought he’d be in danger, but he says his colleagues were relieved the trip didn’t end badly.
“Oh, good, we don’t have to call your wife and tell her you were in a ditch left for dead,” one said.
Engler made it home at 1 a.m. that night and didn’t think much more about it.
“We’ve done a lot of different things for a lot of different people,” he says of his staff of 11. “Pretty much anything they’ve needed. If we can do it, we do.”
That includes getting someone something to eat if they don’t have the money or even giving them money.
“We’ve got a unique group,” Engler says.
It made an impression on the customer, who turned out to be Dave Young, the president of Paragon Wealth Management, which includes Paragon TV.
Young used his network to tell the story of Engler helping him.
“I was shocked,” Engler says. “I was like, no way.”