Police Officer Plays Hopscotch With Homeless Girl – Cleverly Uses The Game To Learn About The Child’s Welfare

When a police officer plays a game of hopscotch to distract a homeless girl from the harsh realities of life, it is not the training or experience, but the humanity that takes precedence.

When Officer Zach Pricer from Southern California realized he was dealing with a delicate situation involving a homeless mother and daughter, he decided to humanely handle the situation and playfully diffuse the tension. Instead of making the young child endure the trauma of the legal process, he chose to engage her in a game of hopscotch, while his colleagues took care of the formalities. The act of kindness was captured on camera and posted on the Huntington Beach Police Department Facebook page. Needless to say, the footage has gone viral and has captured the attention of the internet.

https://www.facebook.com/HuntingtonBeachPolice/videos/1129395343771696/

Interestingly, it wasn’t Officer Pricer, but Officer Scott Marsh of the Huntington Beach police force, who discovered a vehicle that was suspiciously occupied. Officer Scott Marsh was out on patrol and checked on a suspicious occupied vehicle near Graham Street and Edinger Avenue, when he discovered the vehicle wasn’t being used for transportation, but in fact, was serving an entirely different duty. Marsh discovered the vehicle was being used as a home by a mother and her 11-year-old daughter.

During the investigation that followed, the police discovered the people in the vehicle were a mother and her 11-year-old daughter and they had been living out of their car, reads the post on Facebook. Officer Marsh contacted the department’s Homeless Task Force to begin the process of making housing arrangements for the family. In the meantime, Officer Pricer who was passing by, arrived on the scene and quickly realized what the little girl might be going through.

Deciding to extract information about the family in a humane way, Pricer opted to engage the little girl in a game of hopscotch. The video captured, shows Pricer enthusiastically explaining the rules of the game. The officer even draws a nice hopscotch grid on the sidewalk using a chalk. Interestingly, Officer Pricer didn’t stop, and in complete uniform, the 38-year-old cop expertly demonstrates how the game is played, instantly delighting her and inducing a giggle from her. While playing, the officer is heard saying the following.

“Your feet touched the line, but I’m going to let you go because it’s your first time. I’ll give it to you.”

And soon after, it looked like with the officer’s instruction, the little girl was headed towards becoming an expert, too, reported CBS News. The girl even high-fived the police officer to celebrate.

The officer learnt a great deal about the family while keeping the situation light and friendly, shared Huntington Beach Police spokeswoman Jennifer Marlatt,

“It distracted her from an adult problem. “

Officer Pricer is a 13 year veteran and confirmed the game was a tool to diffuse the tension, help the child relax and allow the officer to extract information.

“For an 11-year-old girl, to see a police officer towering over her is a scary thing. I was trying to break the ice and get her to feel more comfortable with me.”

Officer Marsh added that he wasn’t surprised about his colleague’s actions.

“Officers do all sorts of things that are maybe out of the ‘police officer character’ because we’re all just human beings.”

Officers have been known to routinely engage in such acts of kindness, be it helping a girl put on pants, bonding with an old woman or even pay utility bills of struggling families. What do you think of the police officer’s unique way of engaging a young, homeless child by playing a game of hopscotch?

[Image via Screenshot/Huntington Beach Police Department]