A Hueytown police officer took compassion on a teenage grocery store worker this month, and his act of compassion is going viral.
When Corporal Sebastian Goldman visited a Food Giant store a few weeks ago, he noticed a 19-year-old worker had duct tape wrapped around one of his shoes.
Cpl. Goldman asked the teen, “‘What’s up with duct tape?’ Is that something all the kids are doing? A fashion statement?”
The teen told Goldman that his shoe had split while he was working. He had wrapped the shoe in duct tape as a temporary fix until payday so he could buy a new pair. The worker’s story struck a chord with Goldman. It happened to be raining that day, and Goldman was concerned that the boy’s taped shoe would not survive walking home in the downpour.
Goldman, who had been at the store buying food for jail inmates, casually asked the teen for his shoe size before he left. He then went to a Shoe Dept. to buy the boy a new pair and brought them to him at work later that day.
“I said, ‘Man, here you go. I didn’t know payday was Friday or two weeks from now,”’ Goldman told AL.com, recalling the interaction with the teen. “He said, ‘What do I owe you?’ and I told him to just pay it forward.”
The teen, who wished to remain anonymous, was shocked by the officer’s act. “I just want to thank him, I shook his hand and everything, but I just want to thank him for what he did,” he told ABC 33/40.
A woman who happened to be at the Food Giant when this happened took a picture and posted it on Facebook. Angela Roach Scory commented, “Everyone at Food Giant this morning was in tears when he brought them to the young man! Way to go Officer Goldman!” The post has been shared over 400 times.
“I hope people take from it that the police aren’t really bad,” Goldman said. “We’ve been getting such a bad rap in the news. We’re human beings with families and kids and loved ones.”
Hueytown Police Chief Chuck Hagler was absolutely not surprised at Goldman’s act of kindness. “Good people act when they see a person in need and most police officers that I know are fundamentally good people,” he said.
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