DURHAM, N.C. -- Police officers are sworn to protect and serve, but one Durham squad is taking service to a whole new level.

  • Two officers responding to a call ending up making food for a man in need.
  • The man called saying he was hungry.
  • He was unable to get to his kitchen.

Durham Police District 4B had two recent calls that led to food.

“The narrative said an elderly man had called the resource line and stated that he was hungry and hadn’t eaten in two days. And as we were going the narrative updated and said he had food but he couldn’t fix it himself. He wanted to know if we could fix it. I initially thought it was a joke,” said Cpl. Christopher Goss.

Goss and Officer Garrett Rogers responded to the call. Upon arriving, they found out the man lived in a three-level home and couldn't get up to the kitchen. 

Not only did they make him his breakfast, just adding an egg to a pre-made mix with a quarter inch of ketchup, they also got to know the man. It turns out he's a veteran living in the Stirrup Creek neighborhood.

Both officers have been back to visit and say they plan to help him with preparing food in the future.

“We are reactive by nature so normally when we get dispatched to calls the only thing we have to go off of is the narrative communications gives us but a lot of times we don’t know how that call is going to evolve once we get there. So it’s kind of like, I think all police officers by nature want to help people, want to help people’s situations get better," said Goss. "A lot of times when we get called, it’s mostly chaos that people want us to calm down, but sometimes with situations like this you actually have to go beyond what you normally would do to make sure somebody’s day is better and he definitely made my day better," said Goss. "So I think it’s very important to remember that in the back of your mind the reason you start this was to help people anyway.”​

Watch the video above to learn about another act of kindness by Officer Jessica Rowsey.

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