When the police officers in Pasco County, Florida, responded to a routine loitering call, they assumed it would be like any other situation they responded to countless times.
In a twist of kind-hearted events, the call turned to a display of generosity and following Jesus’ admonition to care for our neighbors in need (Luke 10:25-37).
In a Facebook video released by the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, the two deputies responded to a loitering call at a gas station just north of Tampa. When they arrived, the body cam video showed a homeless man without shoes.
“You ain’t got shoes, my dude?” the deputy asks the man.
The video cuts, and the second deputy brings a plastic bag into view, plunking a pair of flip-flops on the hood of a car to present to the man.
“You good? You’ll be alright?” he confirms as the man slips on the shoes.
After issuing a warning not to trespass, the officers asks if the man is hungry.
“Let me see what I can do,” and as the video cuts to the officer exiting the gas station with words of thanks to the workers, he presents a hoagie to the man.
As the encounter concludes, the officers share with a bystander, “Can’t let a human being walk around with no shoes.”
“This is not an uncommon story for deputies. It’s not one we really talk about enough, but this is very common for the Pasco sheriff’s office,” Amanda Hunter, public information manager for the sheriff’s office, told Fox News. “We serve all citizens no matter their conditions or anything like that. The deputy mentioned in the video, ‘No human being should go without shoes.’ It was just a no-brainer. The deputy saw this person with no shoes and didn’t even think twice about heading to the store to grab him some.”
Hunter spoke of the “deep” desire to help people that prevails throughout their office.
“I can’t speak for every law enforcement officer across the country,” she says, “but I can tell you that an overwhelming majority of our people are in this job to help people. Whether that be on a call for service in a domestic violence situation or as you see in this video just helping someone out with a quick meal and some shoes. Deputies at our agency get involved in this career because they have a deep desire to help people.”
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