VIDEO: An Off-Duty Police Officer Helps Stranded Motorist

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)-If you saw someone stopped on the side of the road, would you stop to help?

An off duty Columbus police officer did just that. He took the time to assist a stranded motorist.

“It’s really good to see there’s still some good officers out there, said Darrell Baldwin Jr., a resident of Columbus.

It was just over a week ago when Baldwin was out for a late night drive.

While on the highway, Baldwin suddenly started having car problems, so he pulled over into Love’s Travel Stop to check things out.

“I had a blowout on the by-pass and I didn’t want to stop on the side of the road,” he recalled. “It was pretty dark out, so I just went on down to Love’s.”

Once he pulled over, Baldwin noticed one his rear tires was completely shredded, and knew he could no longer drive on it.

“I walked into the store I was trying to find someone to help me out, because my jack wouldn’t come from under my car,” said Baldwin. “I couldn’t get it out of there because it was rusted in.”

Baldwin would find that help in the form of a Columbus police officer.

“I was on break at Love’s truck stop trying to get something to eat here once in a while, and a cashier came to me and said a customer’s tire was flat outside and needs someone to change it for him,” said Columbus police officer Roman Sones.

Officer Sones was off duty at the time, but said he couldn’t pass on the chance to lend a helping hand to someone who was in need.

“I went outside, I had a tire jack in the back of my car, jacked his car up, swapped the tire out, and I was explaining to him you can’t drive on a donut for very long and that he needed to get it replaced,” the officer recalled.

But Baldwin didn’t have the money to buy a new tire, so that’s when the police officer stepped in and offered another kind gesture.

“He said he didn’t have the money to buy a new tire, so I gave him a hundred bucks and told him to go purchase a new one whenever he could,” the police officer said.

“I was shocked,” Baldwin explained. “I was like, man you don’t really have to do this man.”

That very next morning Baldwin went and bought himself a brand new tire.

This simple act of kindness helped two complete strangers become friends.  It also proves that sometimes a gesture that seems small to one person means everything to another.

“I’d like this to be shown more as him being a good man rather than a good cop,” said Baldwin. “He’s a good cop but he’s a great man for what he did. I was a complete stranger, he didn’t have to do that by any means.”

“It’s a benefit to be able to give back to the community that helps me out, because everything that I get from the city the city gives me and it’s nice to be able to give back to them every one in a while,” said Officer Sones.

This isn’t the first time officer Sones has gone beyond his call of duty to lend a helping hand.

Back in October, the Department’s Overview Committee awarded Sones for helping push a broken down bus to a nearby gas station.

The police officer said he’s happy to lend a helping hand to anyone whenever he can.