Home Brentwood Brentwood Police Help Middle School Student Replace Stolen Bicycle

Brentwood Police Help Middle School Student Replace Stolen Bicycle

by ECT

The Brentwood Police Department came together this week and replaced a middle school student’s bicycle that was stolen outside a local grocery store.

According to Officer Michael Rucker, a Bristow Middle School student who was working on the Brentwood Police Activities League truck restoration project had his bicycle stolen outside Food Maxx while they were at the coin star machine.

Rucker explained that Dylan Smith was in the store for less than 10-minutes before it was gone leaving the youth devastated as it was his only means of transportation and he rode it all around town.

“I got the call from Dylan and I was down there a few minutes later where another officer was taking the report. I drove around looking for the bicycle and could not locate it,” explained Rucker who noted that prior to going to Food Maxx, Smith and others had been working on the PAL truck project.

Rucker provided background of the family where Dylan Smiths mom takes in foster babies and are an amazing family.

“Dylan gets everywhere by bicycle, he loves to BMX, go to the skate park, working on trucks. He is not in a position to buy a new bicycle so we wanted to donate to the family for him to get around town,” explained Rucker. “He is a good kid, very respectful, you talk to this kid for 5-minutes and you like him. He has a good heart and he does good work on the truck.”

Brentwood-Pal-2On Friday, Officer Rucker and Josep Francesc took Dylan to Schwinn City in Antioch where he was able to pick out a new bicycle to take home.

Rucker highlighted the entire Brentwood Police Department deserves credit in raising funds highlighting that after the bicycle was stolen, he wrote an email to the police department asking for donations after writing about what happened.

He says Chief Mark Evenson was one of the first to respond offering to help.
“Without hesitation, when I sent out the email, before I could get a glass of water, people were replying wanting to help and asking how to get some money into the pot,” explained Rucker. “It was amazing. They jumped right it. The Brentwood Police Department is full of good people who didn’t even ask questions, they just reacted and we have some very selfless people here. We really are all about the community.”

The story quickly spread Friday night on social media where BUSD Superintendent Dana Eaton thanked the Brentwood Police Department for looking out for city youth.

“Officer Rucker and our Brentwood Officers are always there for our students and community.  This act of kindness doesn’t surprise me in the least,” said Eaton.

Rucker, who is a School Resource officer for K-8 and works with the police activities league calls the SRO position the best he has ever had because of the relationships he gets to build with youth and work with the kids.

“If it wasn’t for this position, I would never have known Dylan; it would be another kid without a bicycle that was stolen. This is a kid I know, it’s a lot of blood sweet and tears with these kids each day. It makes your job matter when you know a person and their family,” said Rucker.

With regards to the truck restoration project, Rucker says they are about 50% done and hope by August they can enter the finished project into some car shows before the raffle it off.

For more information on the Brentwood Police Activities League, visit http://www.brentwoodca.gov/gov/police/community/pal.asp

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1 comment

Human Apr 23, 2016 - 2:20 pm

Schwinn City is a legit place ✌?️

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