Huntington Beach PD officers Zach Pricer and Scott Marsh were called out to investigate a “suspicious occupied vehicle”.
They weren’t expecting to find what they did.
For one, there were no “perps”.
What they actually discovered was an 11-year-old girl and her mom living if their car.
Marsh immediately found them help.
He reached out to the police department’s Homeless Task Force to help the family find housing.
Pricer thought he would help put the girl at ease while mom talked with someone from the task force.
“For an 11-year-old girl, to see a police officer towering over her is a scary thing,” said Pricer, 38, told The Orange County Register. “I was trying to break the ice and get her to feel comfortable with me.”
So, he taught her “hopscotch”.
Pricer, who has been an officer of the law for the last 13 years, also used hopscotch as a way to find out more about how the girl was living and her welfare.
“It distracted her from an adult problem,” Marlatt said.
The 11-year-old girl didn’t know how to play hopscotch.
He was more than happy to teach her.
Pricer’s incredibly good at his job.
He explained the rules and then demonstrated how to play. The 11-year-old found this quite amusing.
“Your feet touched the line, but I’m going to let you go because it’s your first time,” Pricer said when the girl gave it a go. “I’ll give it to you.”
Her next attempt earned her a high five from Pricer.
She started warming up to him.
Footage of Pricer playing hopscotch with the little girl was posted on social media. I’m sure you can guess what happened then.
The video quickly went viral.
It ended up going viral and was liked more than 47,000 times and viewed more than 1.7 million times.
“This morning an officer checked on a suspicious occupied vehicle in the area of Graham and Edinger,” the video’s caption explained.
[photop
“During his investigation, he learned the people in the vehicle were a mother and her 11-year-old daughter and they had been living out of their car. The officer contacted our Homeless Task Force to help arrange housing. As the officer worked on housing arrangements with the mother, another officer on scene, Officer Pricer, began displaying his expertise in hopscotch to the daughter. #Copslovehopscotch.”
It garnered over 3,000 comments.
“Very sweet, but the officer is out. You can’t use your hand to balance when picking up the marker,” said one Facebook user.
“Way to go Officer Pricer, you’re a good man.”
The Police Department earned praise, too.
“So wonderful to see HBPD helping this mother and daughter,” said another Facebook commenter.
Sometimes it doesn’t take a gruesome act to call out the hero in someone.
Sometimes being a hero looks a lot like a simple game of hopscotch with a kid who’s down on their luck at the moment.
Who knows what incredible impact his small act of kindness will have on the little girl in the future?
As for right now, though, we know it’s made a huge impact on everyone who’s tuned in to see it.
See Officer Pricer school a sweet little girl in a game of hopscotch in the video below!
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
