{"id":14160,"date":"2016-07-11T20:07:59","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T20:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/?p=14160"},"modified":"2016-07-11T20:07:59","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T20:07:59","slug":"albuquerque-officer-saves-kids-summer-replaces-stolen-bikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/?p=14160","title":{"rendered":"Albuquerque officer saves kids\u2019 summer, replaces stolen bikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Watch the report HERE\u203a\u203a<\/a><\/p>\n

(KRQE<\/a>)<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0It was something that could have ruined their summer, but two kids said what an Albuquerque police officer did in response to their crisis is something they\u2019ll never forget. The special moment was captured on camera by a stranger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a couple of kids that I see on a fairly regular basis, they\u2019re riding their bikes,\u201d officer Paul Haugh, a 10-year veteran with the Albuquerque Police Department, told KRQE News 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love riding bikes, we ride them all day,\u201d said 14-year-old Juliana Almentero.<\/p>\n

Officer Haugh, Juliana, and her little brother, Fabian, are all used to waving \u2018hello\u2019 in the neighborhood. But one particular day last month, their worlds collided.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey walk up to me and Juliana is just crying,\u201d Officer Haugh recalled.<\/p>\n

He was on patrol near the Walmart at San Mateo and Central. Juliana had been to the pool with her little brother, then they went to Walmart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe brought our bikes and we had them locked,\u201d said Juliana.<\/p>\n

But when she and her brother went outside to check, their bikes were gone. Someone had cut the lock.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart dropped because it was my favorite bike!\u201d The 14-year-old recalled. \u201cThe main thing I was worried about was how I was gonna get home. And I didn\u2019t have a phone on me or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

She admits she didn\u2019t think the officer could help at first.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like \u2018there\u2019s no point in telling a cop, all he\u2019s gonna do is put a report out and then we\u2019re never gonna get our bikes back,\u2019\u201d said Juliana.<\/p>\n

Officer Haugh checked surveillance video at Walmart to try and see who took the bikes, but the cameras didn\u2019t catch anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just kept on saying something like, \u2018Let me see what I can do, let me see what I can do,\u2019\u201d Juliana told KRQE News 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to them, \u2018hey lets go inside,\u2019\u201d officer Haugh recalled. He said he didn\u2019t want this theft to ruin the kids\u2019 summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took us all the way down to the bikes and he just told us to pick one,\u201d said Juliana. \u201cAnd I was like\u2026I was shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officer Haugh didn\u2019t stop there. He bought Juliana and her 12-year-old brother heavy duty U-bolt locks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just kept telling him \u2018thank you,\u2019 and he went and bought us bike locks, like the better ones that won\u2019t get cut,\u201d said Juliana.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to them, \u2018This way if somebody really wants your bike they\u2019re gonna have a tough time getting it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The officer purchased the bikes out of pocket. \u201cI just saw him pull out a credit card at the register, and like the price was really high!\u201d Juliana said.<\/p>\n

A stranger snapped a photo of the officer buying the bikes at Walmart and sent it to APD\u2019s Facebook.<\/p>\n

The photo now has more than 5,000 likes<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong>However,\u00a0<\/strong>Officer Haugh said he didn\u2019t do it for recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny officer would have done the same thing to see that smile,\u201d the officer said. He said he still sees the brother and sister riding their new bikes in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen them since then and they recognize me, and one of them came up and gave me a hug,\u201d Officer Haugh recalled. He said building those relationships and making an impact\u00a0on the community\u00a0is what\u2019s important.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in the same beat for five years, I\u2019m kinda known as \u2018Officer Paul,\u2019 and I enjoy that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Juliana said their summer was saved. The 14-year-old wanted the officer to know how much his generosity that day was appreciated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you so much for fixing our summer, because without bikes like I don\u2019t even know what we\u2019d be doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The 10-year APD veteran said he doesn\u2019t have kids yet. His first daughter is due in October.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watch the report HERE\u203a\u203a (KRQE) \u2013\u00a0It was something that could have ruined their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":14161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14162,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14160\/revisions\/14162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgiaarsoncontrol.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}