Whenever a stranger steals from us, we know that for the most part, they did so in the hopes of fetching a decent price elsewhere for their ill-gotten goods.
Yet those of us who have experienced burglary can attest that thieves always seem to have a bizarre knack for stealing things that have a lot more sentimental value for us than monetary value to them. It’s hard to explain it in any other way besides bad luck , but that aspect manages to be even more devastating than the theft itself.
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And in the case of one Arizona family, whoever stole one little boy’s toy tractor couldn’t have picked a more disheartening target. However, the child would soon learn just how many people had his back.
Ealier this year, Peter Philbrook of Tempe, Arizona posted a Facebook message pleading for the return of his four-year-old son Gerald’s toy Gator tractor.
As we can see from his statement, this tractor was considered “priceless” to the family because the father and son had spent months fixing it up together.
Even more unfortunately, the tractor had stickers on it that were mementos of both Peter’s fallen best friend and Gerald’s grandmother.
For that reason, they were willing to do whatever it took to scrape together a reward for whoever could return it.
When Patrol Sergeant Andrew Brooks of the Tempe Police came across this post, he and his wife were moved by it and inspired into action.
As Brooks told Fox 6, “My wife said to me, ‘Hey you have to take care of this dude. You have to do something.'”
And while Brooks had made some attempts and inquiries of his own to try and track down the Gator, his efforts turned out to be unsuccessful.
As Gerald’s mother Steffanie said, “It was really sad seeing him so hurt. He would draw pictures and tell stories of when he had his gator and why was it gone.”
But as Fox 6 reported, Brooks didn’t stop there and he and his fellow officers were able to arrange a partnership between the Tempe Officer’s Association and a local Walmart location to buy Gerald a new one.
When they told the family what was going on, Gerald’s parents decided to surprise him with the Gator and the officers under the guise of meeting some friends in the park.
And in a video posted to the police department’s Twitter account, you can see the moment where Gerald first realizes what the police did for him.
And while Brooks had clearly made Gerald’s day by taking the lead on their efforts, he said that seeing Gerald smile made his day too.
As a representative from the Tempe Police said in a statement, “The video does not fully convey the abundance of joy, kindness and gratitude those present felt at that moment.”
h/t: Fox 6