North Carolina Police Officer's Kind Deed For Broke Mom Goes Viral On Facebook

Police departments and police officers across the country have taken a great deal of criticism over the last year or two. While some of the criticism of US law enforcement is well founded and based on fact, much of it is spurious or minor incidents blown way out of proportion.

Most of the police officers all across the US are honest, hardworking men and women just trying to make their communities a safer place to live. Moreover, quite a few of them are top-notch human beings who consistently go out of their way to help others.

One recent example of this comes to us from Huntersville, a small town not far from Charlotte, North Carolina. A broke single mom named Kat Hartman had only $6 cash but she had to put gas in her car earlier this week.

She stopped at the 7-Eleven on Gilead Road in Huntersville to gas up, as she had just sold her son’s stroller so she would have money to buy gas.

Then her son asked her if she could have some chocolate milk from the store, but Hartman said, “I had to tell him ‘no’ because I didn’t have enough money”.

The unemployed resident of Charlotte commented that she could have never expected what came next.

Hartman was getting back in her car and about to put the key in the ignition when she heard a knock on her window. It was Huntersville police Officer Thomas Bautista.

“‘I saw you were paying in change and only put a small amount in your car,’” Bautista said to the stunned silent single mom “‘I told myself I was going to do something good for someone else today, so I’m going to fill up your tank.’”

“I immediately started (bawling) my eyes out,” Hartman posted on Facebook later on. “Not all cops are bad! This was amazing. I can’t thank him enough.”

Within 48 hours, Hartman’s Facebook post about Bautista’s good deed had received almost 25,000 likes.

“It just shows how social media drives things,” noted Huntersville police Capt. Scott Sharp in an interview with the media.

In reference to Bautista, “He’s just one of those guys who goes out of his way to help people,” Sharp said.

He noted that Bautista had joined the department in 2007 as a patrol officer, then became a school resource officer and most recently a canine officer with the department.

Sharp also stated that Bautista’s investigative abilities are top-notch.

He described an incident when Bautista was training with the Huntersville department, Sharp was riding with him sometime after a hit-and-run wreck killed a pedestrian in the nearby town of Cornelius. Sharp says Bautista pointed out a damaged vehicle parked in Huntersville, and it was the car that killed the pedestrian in Cornelius.

He’s also a downright likable guy, Sharp said.

Sharp commented that he was amazed as student after student approached Bautista to shake his hand and say hello when he dropped by Hopewell High School when Bautista was a resource officer there.

“They could come and talk to him,” Sharp said about how comfortable students felt with Bautista

As for Bautista’s latest good deed, Sharp remarked, “It’s just nice to see one of our officers being recognized for something they do when no one’s really watching them.”

Source: Charlotte Observer, Mad World News
Photo: WCNC