Illinois Police Officer Gives Homeless Man His Shoes

Dec 05, 2019 by apost team

Heartwarming stories like this one are a great way to start your day.

In Niles, Illinois, a police officer gave up the shoes on his feet for a homeless man.

Police Officer Brian Zagorski was patrolling the streets of Niles when he noticed a man clearly struggling to walk.

“He was having trouble walking,” Officer Zagorski told KULR News. “The rubber on the bottom of his shoes were folding underneath as he would take a step.”

The man was tripping over his own feet because of how tattered his shoes were. Zagorski said that the shoes were missing their soles and folding up each time the man took a step.

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He approached the homeless man and offered a "HOPE" bag, which is a bag filled with essential everyday items like blankets, toothbrushes, deodorants and body washes. HOPE stands for "helping other people everyday." Some police officers always keep HOPE bags on hand to pass out to people in need.

But this homeless man at first seemed reluctant to accept help and declined the offer. Zagorski asked him if he needed help with his shoes and what size he wore. It turned out they had the same shoe size.

That's when Zagorski knew what had to be done. He let the homeless man try on his shoes and told him that they were now his. The homeless man now seemed happy and grateful.

We hope that when people hear about stories like this, they will be inspired to go the extra mile to help a person in need. We can guess that the police officer will have more pairs of shoes at home, so his inconvenience won't last very long.

What is important, however, is that his act of kindness not only helped prevent health problems for the homeless man but almost definitely brightened his day. Sure, we know precious little of the homeless man's story or journey. But we can almost be sure that this moment will have given him new reason to hope. 

There are many little ways you can help make the world a better place. Do you already do random acts of kindness in your community? Let us know your unique stories and let's spread more positivity in the world.