Harry Salimi, a 52 year old New York resident, was walking his dog in a busy thoroughfare on Wednesday morning, when a sudden dizzy spell and radiating pains from his right hand sent him sprawling to the ground in a dramatic and outrageous fashion after making two brief stops on the way down: one at the side of a public water fountain and another at a half-full garbage bin. For twenty minutes, Mr. Salimi lay motionless on the ground, leaving his Cocker Spaniel mix with nothing to do but look mournfully at passers by.

As emergency workers eventually arrived on the scene, it became obvious the human tragedy that often appears in big cities had replayed itself once again; No one stopped to help Mr. Salimi, although he was in obvious distress. But what was different about this particular incident was that over 200 people who passed Mr. Salimi without stopping to help were his Facebook “friends.” Later that day, as Mr. Salimi recounted his brush with death to his 668 “friends” on Facebook, many were silent, and feeling a little guilty, as hardly anyone commented on his post.

However, someone set up a fan page called, “I Stepped Over Harry Salimi as He Lay Dying in the Street,” and it had 4307 fans by the end of the next day.