The Harlem Hero who dove onto a subway track is taking a different gamble.
Wesley Autrey saved the life of a seizure-stricken stranger by holding him under a roaring train
last January, tonight he'll try to win up to $1 million on "Deal or No Deal"Playing on the hit NBC
game show was far more nerve-racking than the split-section decision to jump on the tracks,
Autrey told the Daily News. I found myself hesitating more for the show," he conceded. I didn't
hesitate on the tracks because I didn't have time to. The train was coming too fast".Autrey was
standing on the platform at W. 137th St. and Broadway with his two young daughters when spasms knocked Cameron Hollopeter onto the track.Hearing an oncoming train, Autrey quickly jumped down to pin the flailing man still as the train passed over them. On the show Autrey bargains with an anonymous banker via host Howie Mandel for a sum of money. Autrey first chooses one of 26 briefcases that contain amounts ranging from a penny to $1 million.What's in that and subsequent cases won't be revealed until the show airs tonight. Autrey thought the game was just as exciting as his underground adventure. "I'm playing to win money that I know I'm going to walk home with," he said. "The other one is playing with time.I didn't have a second
to sit and say, "Should I choose this route? "Should I turn left?" Should I turn right?"This won't be the first time money's been thrown at Autrey since his Superman gesture."Donaldl Trump gaveme $10,000, he said. A billionaire from somewhere mailed me a check for $50,000.And various people from around the country sent checks for $5,000 $1,000 $100 $50, some even a dollar." But Autrey may not get to keep all of his rewards for his heroic act. He's currently battling Queens lawyer Diane Kleiman and her Hollywood partner over a contract he signed that would give them 50% of any money he makes from telling his tale. Tune in tonight to see how much Autrey takes home."He was a risktaker," said show producer Scott St. John,"which he Proved that day that he saved someone's life." Adapted from the N.Y.Daily News 5-21 07
