Police officer surprises boy with badge delivery
When Erin Marie’s son Dominic spotted two Pembroke Pines Police officers eating breakfast across the room at Bogart’s, he had to say something.
“He was a shy little kid,” said Officer Robert Scopa. “But when he was finally brave enough to talk to us, he asked for a badge.”
The little boy was at the Cooper City diner with his dad and brother and Marie says he loves to play “police” and wears a costume uniform almost daily.
Scopa was touched, but since he wasn’t in his car, he didn’t have a badge for Dominic — so he improvised.
“I asked dad, ‘if it’s ok with you and you give me your address I’ll make sure you’ll get one,’” the officer — who is also the school resource officer at Pembroke Pines Charter — recalled. “He was a cute kid.”
A day later, Scopa delivered Dominic a badge, patch, some pencils and a handwritten note to the family’s mailbox. Marie was touched and took to Facebook to write about the exchange.
“You may have thought it was nothing but when my son opened up the mailbox with me and saw what you did for him, he couldn’t contain his happiness,” she wrote. “You make a difference every day in all our lives, but today you truly made him feel so special.”
Scopa said those little exchanges are important to him because he remembers when his own son got rejected after wanting an autograph.
“I took him to a football game and he waited for hours in the rain to get a picture and signature and they walked right by him,” he said. “It was heartbreaking.”
Since writing about Scopa’s gift to Dominic on Facebook, the post has gained over 500 likes and 47 shares as of publication time.
“I’ve always made it a point that if I can, I go out of my way to make sure [kids] know that they can approach us,” Scopa said.