Springtown boy shows off new bicycle from police department | News

“Ezra came out from his room, and he was just terrified. He was mortified. A cop was asking for him by name,” Ezra’s mother Arizona Garcia said. “(The officer said), ‘We got you something.’ (They) went outside, and he had the bike out there, and he let him sit in his car and everything.”

The Springtown police officer who delivered the bike – Cpl. Ken Hopkins – was just getting off work and was still in his uniform when he visited Ezra’s home. Hopkins heard that Ezra had an interest in law enforcement and invited him to check out the police car, where the bike was sitting nearby.

“We gave him the opportunity to sit in it, look at it, see the kinds of devices that we have. He got his picture taken behind the driver’s seat, and we put him in the backseat so he could see what it was like back there,” Hopkins said. “He seemed to really enjoy his interaction with me and the patrol car.”

Ezra denied being scared, but he did say he was happy to receive the new bicycle. His mother said the bike is a little too big for him, but he’s learning to ride it and will grow into it.

“It was a really good surprise,” Arizona Garcia said. “I was shocked.”

The gift from Springtown police department also included a stocking with candy inside, a helmet and a few other gifts, Arizona Garcia said.

Springtown Police Department gives out gifts to families at Christmastime through its annual Tickets for Toys program. Officers sometimes opted to give folks receiving warnings for minor violations a Ticket for Toys ticket and asked them to donate toys voluntarily. The police department also received plenty of donations from others as well.

“A lot of those citizens have really embraced this because it’s not only the people that we’ve come in contact (with) and given our little green stickers to. It’s people that have heard about our program, and they come and donate on their own,” Hopkins said.

Arizona Garcia said she unwittingly became a part of this effort when her neighbor’s caregiver, who is married to Hopkins, found out that Ezra’s bike had a flat tire and old chains. Garcia said the old bike was a hand-me-down, but Ezra still enjoyed riding it. When asked if Ezra would like a new bike, Arizona Garcia said that he would.

“It was a really good experience because we’re not from here,” Ezra’s mother said. “We don’t really know anybody. I work six days a week, so I don’t really socialize with anybody out here too much. I don’t know anybody, so it was really shocking.”

This isn’t the first time that the Garcias have been shown generosity by the Springtown community in the three and a half years that they have lived in the city. Arizona Garcia recounted a time when she inquired about scholarship opportunities to help pay for her son to play baseball, and the community ended up donating funds to cover that cost.

“People out here, they’re just so nice and sweet and caring for each other. That’s the one thing that I really have grown to love about Springtown, and that’s (a) reason why I want to stay here,” Arizona Garcia said. “Everybody’s so nice. Everybody wants to see each other succeed, and that’s very, very rare to find.”

Arizona and Ezra Garcia want to let the police department know that they are thankful for the new bike.

“Bikes are well over $100-something. It’s not something you could just pick up and go buy,” Arizona Garcia said. “It’s definitely a big blessing for us, for him.”

As for Hopkins, he enjoys the parts of his job that allow him to help people.

“I think it’s an effort that we make to show that there’s more of a human side and a compassionate side in law enforcement when we do stuff like this,” he said. “And that’s exactly what I got into this line of work to do.”