In a time where most news stories concerning police officers interacting with the public tend to be rather negative, it’s reassuring and heartwarming when a story emerges demonstrating an officer of the law going above and beyond their expected duties in order to make a victim’s life a little better.
Step forward Cleveland’s Officer James Grotenrath (whose name would make an excellent ground-type Pokemon, by the way), who was called to the aid of nine year old Pokemon fan, Bryce. Bryce was innocently walking down the road holding a binder full of his treasured Pokemon cards when a cruel thief (presumably a member of Team Rocket) snatched the collection out of the youngster’s hands and ran off.
Naturally, the police were called and although the binder was recovered from another child living nearby, some of the cards were no longer there. Unable to immediately track down each of the missing items, Officer Grotenrath took it upon himself to lessen the injustice young Bryce had suffered and went home, retrieved his own childhood Pokemon card collection and handed them over to the nine year old as a gift.
Speaking to local news outlets, the cop claimed he “grew up with Pokemon,” going on to explain, “I loved Pokemon as a kid and I would be heartbroken too if my cards were taken from me.”
And just in case you were worried that Officer Grotenrath had replaced Bryce’s treasured collection with a bunch of shoddy Pidgey and Energy cards, both the cop and the youngster confirmed that at least one ultra rare item was included in the set. Though the card itself wasn’t named, perhaps in case the thief decides to return and swipe that too, Bryce claims that there are “only about ten of these in the world and I have one of them.”
When asked whether he had any misgivings about handing over such a valuable asset, the kind cop said, “It’s a priceless item but it’s better to see someone else smile and in my book, like my partner says, it’s just happy to see a citizen smile instead of always frowning upon us and looking the other way.”
You’d have to have the icy heart of an Articuno to not be a little moved by such a kind gesture, and the incident is not only a brilliant example of fellow fans banding together in the face of adversity but also speaks volumes about the enduring appeal of the Pokemon Trading Card game, which saw its original card set re-released back in February in aid of the game’s 20th anniversary. That a 26 year old police officer can relate to a nine year old boy is testament to the franchises’ generation-spanning appeal.
Source: Fox 8
