The Cop And the Homeless Man's Shoes: NYPD Officer's Inspiring Kindness Is NYC At Its Finest

 

In what could be a modern O'Henry story, a New York City police officer purchased a pair of shoes and socks for a shoeless homeless man he saw on his beat.

Andrea Peyser at the New York Post wrote about the story.

Police Officer Larry DePrimo makes me proud to be a New Yorker. And a human being.

At 25, his small, bashful voice still cracks. But after 2 1/2 years on the job, he was pounding a beat amid the winos and thugs and pioneering yuppies on West 44th Street. And Officer DePrimo committed a small act of random kindness that proved so powerful, so grand and beautiful, it turned this shy near-rookie into a rock star.

He just doesn’t know it.

On a freezing November night, DePrimo spotted an elderly man with no socks and no shoes on his feet. People who even noticed the man laughed in his direction.

And the officer did something that so many of us who don’t even see the homeless as human would not dare. He saw the man not as someone to avoid, to run away from.

He asked the man’s shoe size — 12. And he walked into Skechers in Times Square, dipped into his own pocket for $50, and bought the homeless stranger a present he’d never before possessed. A new pair of boots. It was as natural as breathing.

“I could see the blisters from the distance,” the cop said shyly. “It was just so cold. I just had to do something.”

You can read the rest of Andrea Peyser's column via the below link:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/officer_inspiring_kindnessis_nyc_YtoVnBMdhzFbpKc0iAbFPI

And you can read another New York post account of the story via the below link:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/times_sq_cop_heart_and_sole_26ZIKgJnNDtxuhX0fCclcO