Honesty really is the best policy, as Presley Chabot recently discovered.
The Taber sixth-grader was getting ice cream with her family when a man approached them.
“He just came up to us out of nowhere, and he asked us if we wanted a bike,” Chabot said. “At first, we said no because it was kind of strange Then we asked him and he said, ‘Free.'”
After receiving the bicycle, Chabot and her parents contacted the Taber Police Service to ensure it wasn’t stolen.
“They said it wasn’t reported stolen, so we just carried on with it,” Chabot said.
Shortly after, the bike was reported as stolen, and Chabot returned it to its rightful owner.
“They made the right call from the beginning,” Taber Police Service Insp. Howard Kehler said. “It’s kind of odd that a stranger would come up and say, ‘Hey, here’s a bike,’ but they did the right thing.”
To reward the girl for her honesty, TPS contacted the Justin Hall Memorial committee and together presented Chabot with a brand new BMX bike.
“We gave it back to the kid and everything and went home,” Chabot said. “The next day, we went outside, and the police were there with a new bike.”
“I’ll tell you what, her coming out of the door, her eyes were this big,” Kehler said. “She was so excited.”
When the committee heard Chabot’s story, member David Dube says purchasing the bike was exactly why the foundation was created five years ago.
“Hearing the need that she needed a bike, so we wanted to partner with the Taber Police Service,” Dube said.
“She was so good-hearted and returned it to its rightful owner.”