A sheriff’s deputy in California is being praised after his act of kindness went viral on social media.
On Tuesday, two officers with the Lancaster Sherriff’s Station in Lancaster, Calif., responded to a call of a traffic hazard on a remote highway outside the city.
“Deputies Chapman and Montanez received a call of a traffic hazard, a wheelchair in the middle of the road,” Lancaster Sheriff’s Station said in a statement posted to Facebook.
“When they arrived, they did find the wheelchair on the side of the road, but with an elderly female sitting in it!”
According to police, the woman was left stranded after her motorized wheelchair ran out of power. The deputies offered her a ride, but the wheelchair was too heavy to load in their patrol car, and the chair was unable to fold due to the battery pack.
After the woman felt upset about leaving her only means of mobility behind, Montanez stepped up in full boots and uniform with an unconventional solution: he decided to push the woman in her wheelchair to her doorstep.
According to police, that meant a walk of 1.5 kilometres.
Chapman drove the patrol car while recording the good deed, and is heard teasing the walking deputy about his “slow” pace, while Montanez and the elderly woman laughed.
“We are so incredibly grateful to all of our deputies for the work they do on a daily basis,” the department wrote on the Facebook post.