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Police Kindness in Action
TL;DR: Police drove a 92-year-old to the DMV to renew ID, after he was refused withdrawal due to an expired ID, then took him back to the bank.
Published in General
Nice story, thank you. Policing is a strange job in that you have to be compassionate when you can be, and willing to fight when you have to.
The Portland Police Bureau has its own food bank, the Sunshine Division. My partner and I were on a domestic call one night and we noticed that there was no food in the house for the parents or the children. There was no assault involved and we told them that we would be back in a short amount of time. We went shopping and bought some easy to prepare meals and then gave them a referral to the Sunshine Division.
The Sunshine Division exists on charitable donations, it is not taxpayer funded. All you can do at times is offer some help in some situations. As Mother Teresa said if you cannot feed many than just feed one.
It is a nice story, but what should have happened is someone from the bank should have had enough sense and compassion to do what the officer did.
I wonder how much cash he was trying to withdraw.
Agreed. Plus, banks are supposed to “know the customer.” How many nonagenarian account holders does this branch have, anyway? An expired ID was a reason to deny this customer access to his funds? Fie!
Indeed!
Part of the stranger culture we are in
See, cops really can be replaced by social workers.
On the other hand, the bank may have been using the technicality of the expired ID to try to protect its customer from elder fraud. Again, it would be good to know the amount of cash involved. Fifty bucks, bad on the bank. Fifty grand, bad on the police.
Plot twist: The cop was actually the fraudster!
Bryan, this beautiful and heartwarming story is exactly the reason I started my Pollyanna Reports at a time I thought I simply HAD to start hearing more of these stories and far fewer of the kind of slime we swim in every day. Thank you very much for posting this lovely story and God Bless that man in Blue! Sincerely, Jim
Thanks.
Just thought some balance was in order
OldPhil, you do understand this involved The Bank Of America. In California.
Not exactly an institution that understands that its customers are humans with human needs.
Guess not. Never involved with either, although I did go to San Francisco once on business. Probably 20 years ago and it was starting to drain into the septic field then.