Two state troopers and state Sen. Randy Baumgardner teamed up Wednesday morning to bring a smile to a homeless man whose shoes had been stolen in the middle of the night.
The troopers every morning wake up the homeless who sleep near the grates outside the education building just north of the Capitol across East Colfax Avenue. Technician Kent Zeller and Trooper Carin Lawrence saw a man without any shoes in the freezing weather.
Lawrence said the man told them, “I took them off last night to warm them on the grate, and someone must have taken them.”
She returned to the Capitol to search the lost-and-found box and to ask whether anyone had an extra pair of shoes. No luck. She approached a table in the basement cafeteria where Baumgardner, a Republican from Hot Sulphur Springs, meets early every morning with a group of lobbyists from agriculture and other industries.
“I thought, ‘Wait a minute,’ ” Baumgardner said. “I asked what size does the guy wear, and she said about a 10 or an 11.” He walked her out to his car in the Capitol parking lot, opened up a duffel and pulled out a beat-up size-11 pair of tennis shoes that Baumgardner wears every morning for his 5 a.m. workout. They still had the socks in them from his morning’s gym visit.
“I said, ‘They’re not the best, but here,’ ” Baumgardner said. “I guess I gave him the shoes off my feet — kind of.”
