Cops, despite all their street grime and crime, have soft spots just like anyone else.
Just ask Lakewood police Officer Patrick Fairbanks about his chance encounter with 7-year-old Jesus Hidalgo, who has cerebral palsy.
Fairbanks was on duty the night of May 18 when someone reported a stolen car at West 17th Avenue and Fenton Street. Fairbanks found the car and learned it had been stolen a week earlier near West 3rd Avenue and Lowell Boulevard in Denver.
When the owners of the car, Joel Hidalgo, 31, and his wife, Esmeralda Torres, 29, arrived, Fairbanks greeted them and noticed they had left their young son in the car.
“The mother started crying that the wheelchair had been stolen from the car,” Fairbanks recalled. “While she was crying, I looked over at the little boy and it just hit me that he was just the sweetest little kid.”
Police get called by plenty of phonies who could easily solve their problems without police help. But this call was real.
“That little boy really got to me,” said Fairbanks, 37, the father of two boys aged 4 and 2.
“I told a lot of people afterward that I’d love to find that boy another wheelchair. But I had no idea where to look. My wife, a hairdresser, said just to keep talking to people about it. Something would turn up.”
Three weeks later, Fairbanks, who had been in the mortgage business before becoming a police officer in 2006, went out drinking with some of his former colleagues, one of whom had a son with cerebral palsy. He told Fairbanks about Peter Kopp, who runs the Kids’ Mobility Network, a nonprofit that specializes in reconditioning wheelchairs.
Kopp didn’t hesitate when Fairbanks called. A month later, Jesus Hidalgo received a $5,000 wheelchair donated by Kopp.
Fairbanks praises Kopp’s generosity. But it was Fairbanks’ persistence that led him to Kopp. His department recognized that, and Fairbanks received the Chief’s Commendation Award on July 9.
Everyone showed up for the award, even Jesus, who met Fairbanks’ two little boys.
“It was pretty cool having everyone there,” Fairbanks said. “But I think anybody would have wanted to do this. Thanks to my wife, I just kept it out there until I got lucky. I was ecstatic to help this nice little guy.”
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
