Police Officer Gives Bike To Teen Who Walks 9 Miles To Work [Video]

Phoenix, AZ – One police officer’s story is going viral today for its uncanny warmth and goodness. Police Sgt. Natalie Simonick reminds us that cops can still be the day-to-day heroes we know them to be.

The 46-year-old sergeant was on patrol at around 11pm when she spotted a young man walking alone in the dark. She stopped 18-year-old Christian Felix, thinking that he was a teen out past curfew.

“And I pulled over and I asked him what he was doing,” Simonick recalled. “He said, ‘Walking home, I missed the bus.'”

Simonick offered Felix a ride home, and during the conversation they had found that he had never ridden a bicycle before. “He never had a father in his life, so he had no one to teach him,” she said.

That’s why Felix would sometimes have to walk 9 miles back home after a shift at McDonalds if he had missed the bus.

She recalled being impressed by Felix. “He doesn’t drink and doesn’t smoke,” she said. “He had never had any contact with police as far as negative contact.”

After giving Felix a ride home, Simonick spoke to her husband and they agreed to give the young man an extra bike they owned. She also enlisted members of her squad to help teach Felix learn how to ride one. Last month, he had his first lesson at the Phoenix police precinct parking lot. After about 45 minutes, he was riding on his own.

Since then, Simonick and Felix have kept in touch, and she said that she wants to continue to help Felix if possible. Felix has also never driven a car before, and Simonick hinted that that might be next.

So why did she help him?

“If everybody could help just one person in the world like this, I think it would definitely be a better place to live,” she said.

As far as Felix is concerned, Sgt. Simonick’s kindness is something he won’t soon forget.

“It’s really something when someone comes up on the street and offers to do a kindness for you,” Felix told ABC affiliate KNXV. “These days you don’t see anything like that.”

What do you think of the story? Do you wish that the police wound up in the news more for stories like this? Sound off!

[Image via: Kryvenok Anastasiia, Shutterstock]