A police officer with a heart of gold was caught on camera sharing his pizza and life stories with a homeless woman during his lunch break.
The sweet encounter occurred in Goldsboro, North Carolina, where Officer Michael Rivers is a figure well-known for his big heart and compassion for the homeless.
As the man admitted according to CNN, he was about to have his lunch break when he spotted a homeless woman at the side of the road.
After exchanging quick greetings, something made Rivers turn his car around and ask the woman if she already ate that day to which she responded by saying “no.”
Feeling it was time to act, the Goldsboro Police Department officer went to a nearby pizza restaurant and picked up two pizzas before returning to the woman who had ‘Homeless. The fastest way of becoming a nobody’ written on her T-shirt.
After his return, the generous cop sat down on the grass next to the homeless woman and shared his pizza with her.
According to CNN, the pair have also exchanged their life stories and talked for 45 minutes before parting ways.
“Law enforcement does so much for our community, with a lot of it going unnoticed. We see you Goldsboro P.D. Keep up the good work,” Chris Barnes, a passerby who took the photo of the officer and the woman, wrote on Facebook.
As Mr. Rivers revealed after his act of kindness, the woman had told him that she and her husband, who is also homeless, have a young daughter who is suffering from liver disease and was taken from them after they ended up on the street.
According to the police officer, he wants people to stop looking down on the homeless and portraying them in a bad light.
“Homeless people are just people who are down on their luck. It can happen to anybody,” Rivers told CNN.
“I come to work and my method is, ‘Who can I bless today? Who can I make smile?’ I’m not the one that wants to take somebody’s father or mother away and put them in jail.”
As it happens, the kind cop’s actions didn’t go unnoticed in his community and among his ranks.
“The circumstances around our job are often an unpleasant call to service, but this picture just shows we’re human like anyone else and any chance we get to serve the community and help people, we take that chance. I’m very fortunate to have Officer Rivers in our department,” Police Chief Michael West told CNN as he applauded the officer for his actions.
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Replaced!