When a homeless man had his shoes stolen, police officer Rolando Rivera decided he would go beyond the call of duty by helping the poor guy out.
In a related report by The Inquisitr , when two cops spotted something still alive in a mud bog they decided to investigate and help the poor creature out.
35-year-old Brian Espeut is a homeless man in the Fort Lauderdale area who said that someone stole his shoes while he slept at a park. Rivera says the man approached him while he was still working and that “he was pretty much in tears. He was distraught, depressed.” So after Rivera finished writing up a report about the incident he promised that he would come help the homeless man after his shift was over:
“Brian, it appeared, was broken. I felt it would be negligent of me to leave Brian open to harm and with a lasting lack of trust for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.”
So the homeless man disappeared, but the police officer remembered his promise. Rivera tracked the other man down to a local park: “As relieved as I was to see him, he was surprised to see me.” The officer then asked Espeut for his shoe size and he drove to Searstown to buy a brand new pair of $44 boots and a $15 package of tube socks. This is how the cop described his return to the park in his report:
“There, in a state of pleasant surprise and sincere appreciation, he put on the socks and boots. They were a good fit.”
The homeless man was so thankful that he caught up with the police officer four days later just to express his gratitude:
“I wanted to thank you. I’ve had so many compliments from friends on my boots. The boots are great. Thank you.”
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler claims that police officers often do good deeds like this that are never noticed:
“Activists come in here and say, ‘Police are out to get the homeless, criminalize the homeless.’ That annoys me. Things like this is what happens day in, day out.”
Rivera has since then been written about in the media, but the police officer says he did not do his good deed to get in the news or receive a commendation:
“I didn’t do it for the publicity. This was just an ordinary guy who needed help.”
