Hilario Cruz Cruz has been selling elotes and fresh fruit outside a Phoenix bank for years. Last week the bank's employees showed him that loyalty runs both ways.

A fierce storm rolled through the Valley with whipping wind and hail. Instead of leaving their favorite vendor outside to ride it out, workers at the bank on Peoria Avenue swung the doors open and dragged his whole custom cart into the lobby. Someone inside filmed the scramble. The video has since topped 1 million views on TikTok with hundreds of thousands of likes.

Cruz Cruz said he was holding the door against the wind with one hand and pulling the cart with the other while a young employee did the same on the other side. He told the manager the cart would never fit through the door. The manager told him it would. It did.

Customers who became a rescue crew

The employees knew him well because they have been buying from his cart for years. According to Cruz Cruz, they told him he was not going anywhere and the cart was coming inside with him. He said that if he had been parked anywhere else, nobody might have been able to help him like that.

After the storm passed he was soaked through with cold feet and had to weave around fallen trees and branches to get home. He spoke through a translator about how thankful he is to the manager and the staff. Nothing bad happened to him because of them, he said.

Business is booming

A week later Cruz Cruz was back at his usual spot just off Interstate 17. He covers about 20 miles on his route and preps everything by hand starting early in the morning. Since the video took off he says his daily sales have jumped as new customers come by to meet the man from the clip.

Some regulars bring coffee. These regulars brought the whole cart in out of the hail. Cruz Cruz put it simply. He said he deeply appreciates the people who keep coming back, which is exactly why they did not leave him outside.