Cops are often seen as synonymous with oppressing the populace. This was, however, not the case with a Police officer who deserves a medal for his acts of kindness – Cpl. Sebastian Goldman.
Cpl. Sebastian Goldman, 48, was on a visit to Hueytown’s largest food store to get some food for the jail inmates. While the 19 year old store attendant helped him load the food items into the car, Goldman casually looked down only to be taken aback by what he saw; the young man had duct tape wrapped around his shoe.
Goldman looked at him and asked:
“‘What’s up with duct tape?’ ‘Is that something all the kids are doing? A fashion statement?’”
The explanation given by the young man hit the father of three hard as he stated:
“Me working here, I split my shoes. I was going to buy some more when I get paid.”
As Goldman left, he casually asked the young man his shoe size, thanked him for helping him load the food in the car and drove away, with the image of the shoe refusing to go away.
Says Goldman:
“I didn’t know if he had to walk home in the rain or what.”
After delivering the food, he stopped by the Shoe dept, picked up a size 12 1/2 shoe and headed back to the food store with the shoe.
He asked for the young man and simply handed him the shoes:
“I said, ‘Man, here you go. I didn’t know [if] payday was Friday or two weeks from now. He said, ‘What do I owe you?’ and I told him to just pay it forward.”
Of course, the officer kept the gesture to himself but an eye-witness uploaded a picture of the happening to Facebook, where Officer Goldman is getting praise from the community and on social media.
The eye-witness – Angela Roach Scory posted on Facebook:
“Special shout out to Hueytown Police Officer Goldman. Today he saw a young man with duct tape on his shoes at Food Giant and bought him a new pair of shoes! Everyone at Food Giant this morning was in tears when he brought them to the young man!!!! Way to go Office Goldman!!!!”
Goldman says in the aftermath of the accolades:
“I hope people take from it that the police aren’t really bad,” “We’ve been getting such a bad rap in the news. We’re human beings with families and kids and loved ones.”
The young man who got the shoes also had this to say:
“I just want to thank him, I shook his hand and everything, but I just want to thank him for what he did.”
Hueytown Police Chief also got in on the act, saying of Officer Goldman:
“Like so many officers, one of the things that attracted Corporal Goldman to police work was the chance to help people. I am pleased and proud of what he did, but not surprised,” the chief said. “Good people act when they see a person in need and most police officers that I know are fundamentally good people.”
That’s a serious vote of confidence from the Police Chief and we sincerely hope Goldman continues to be a good example to us all.
Image Credit: Facebook via Yahoo
