Brittany Payne was having a really bad, stressful day last year. The single mother who lives in Bremerton, Washington, was on her way to a nearby convenience store to pick up some milk with her 15-month-old son when she was pulled over by police.
That was aggravating; she had not had a good time with police in the past and it looked like this was just going to add to that. But before it was over, she was going to be looking at police officers with a whole different perspective.
She had her seatbelt on and she was not speeding. So she couldn’t figure out why in the world police were pulling her over. And she broke down in tears when the officer approached her car.
That officer was Steven Forbragd. He told Brittany the reason he pulled her over was that her license plate was not mounted in her rear window and could not be seen. She told the officer that she did not have the proper tool to affix it to her car and that it would not stay up in the rear window.
Just a few minutes later, two other officers were at the scene. They were Johnny Rivera and Jen Cor. Now Brittany was really worried. But the officers brought with them the tools necessary to attach the licence plate to her car, and they proceeded to do just that.
Once that was done, one of the officers asked her about her son, Colton. Then walked back to his car. A few minutes later, he came back with a voucher – not a ticket. The voucher was from the United Way Kids and Cops program, and it was for $25 that could be used at Walmart or the Fred Meyer store.
Brittany was so grateful. Says the happy mom: “I immediately go into tears from this amazing act of kindness! I can say I have been extremely let down by law enforcement and court system in the past due to past life situations but this definitely restored some of my faith in those who are there to serve and protect our community. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you sooo very much to those currently on shift with the BPD, you all just made my day!!!”
So now Brittany has much better thoughts about police when she sees them.
