A 9-year-old Boy Opens The Door To a COP, Starts Crying After a Second

A nine-year-old boy opens the door to a cop, starts crying when he says why he’s there. Too often, we hear about violent confrontations between police and citizens. For whatever reason, people have the feeling that our country’s officers are overly aggressive and unable to do their job without generating controversy. This is a pity since their job is to do precisely the opposite. That’s why I think it’s especially important that stories like this, that of Agent Austin Line Nema and little Thomas Daniel, get out and get the attention they deserve.

It’s a really touching story that’ll make us realize that things are not always what they seem. Austin Line and Thomas Daniel are two very different people. They’re not the same age; they belong to different generations, and their lives are totally different.

Apparently, there’s nothing that can lead them to know each other, much less to become friends. But they still do. Fate wanted to make them coincide one morning, and since then, they haven’t been separated again, giving us a story full of friendship and compassion that everyone deserves to hear.

But before we get into the details and tell you the story of how they met, we’ll give you some context by explaining more about who they were and the life they led before they had the good fortune to meet.

Austin Line Nema was 35 years old and had been working as a police officer in the Grand Rapids Police Department in Minnesota since he was 22 years old. His life had always been quiet. He never had to face any major challenges or overcome any kind of trauma due to a sad event. He was what is commonly known as the lucky man.

His parents owned a small bakery in a modest downtown neighborhood. Austin grew up amidst the smell of freshly baked bread and the unconditional love of devoted parents who adored him. He had no siblings, although he really wished he had, and his only family were his parents and his maternal grandmother, Vanessa, who lived with him until her death at age 95.

In school, he never had big problems. He was good at sports and at the same time was a good student. He wasn’t brilliant, much less aspiring to become the best student in his class, but he managed to pass all the exams without problems and ensure a good future in whatever his destiny was. Although he always knew that his path would not be linked to any university career, nor to any sport, Line Nema dreamed of becoming a policeman.

Ever since he finished high school, he tried his best to achieve his goal, and he succeeded a few years later when, at the age of 20, he passed all the tests at the Minnesota Police Academy. He became a police officer and quickly gained the trust of his fellow officers and the other members of the squad. Everyone trusted Austin, and he was well-liked among the members of his community.

On a personal level, things weren’t going badly for him either. At the age of 25, he fell madly in love with a young IT girl, Maria, whom he met while having breakfast at her parents’ bakery. Shortly after dating, just seven months later, they got married and moved in together. However, their marriage was as happy as it was fleeting, since his wife Maria’s greatest wish was to become a mother, and although the couple tried for years and went to several fertility specialists to help them, they never succeeded, and that ended up condemning their marriage to a resounding and rapid failure.

At 35, Austin Line Nema was divorced, but in excellent Minnesota policeman, happily serving his country. Except for his failure in love, everything else in his life was going well. Austin considered himself a lucky man and knew that there were a lot of people around him who cared about him and loved him, so it could be said that he was a happy person. Although deep down, only he knew that he wasn’t, and that there was a deep void in his heart that he needed to fill, although he had not yet managed to understand how to do it.

Meanwhile, the other protagonist of our story, Thomas Daniel, was the opposite of what is considered to be a lucky person. At just nine years old, little Daniel had experienced more misfortune than most adults he knew, and there was nothing to indicate that his and his family’s luck was about to change anytime soon.

His father worked in the construction industry and died in a work-related accident when he was only three years old, so it could be said that he never got to know him. He had no family memories of his father, so for Daniel, his only family were his mother, Sarah, and his maternal grandfather, Thomas. Unfortunately, that family became even smaller when his grandfather became seriously ill with lung cancer and died just six months later.

After his grandfather’s death, Daniel and his mother were completely alone in the world, and his mother had to start working two jobs at the same time to pay the bills and buy food, forcing her to spend a lot of time away from home and leaving her son alone for most of the day. Naturally, his mother didn’t like that situation and wanted to spend more time with her child, take care of him, know how his day had gone, and be there in time to put him to bed every night, but she couldn’t. Spending so much time away from home and away from Daniel was the only way they could survive.

His mother was a strong woman and a great mother who sacrificed her utmost to take care of her son and guarantee him a future, and Thomas Daniel knew it. He never approached his mother for anything; on the contrary, his economic and family situation made him mature very quickly and become a responsible and big-hearted child. His big dream was to become a lawyer and get a good job that would allow him to free his mother from poverty and move to live in a better place without worries of any kind. However, he was still too young to fulfill it and had to learn to be patient and accept what life gave him.

In short, Daniel was a good boy who had been very unlucky, who struggled every day to survive and get to fulfill the dream of offering his mother a better life. While Austin was a policeman with a successful career behind him and a stable family environment, two totally different paths that fate wanted to unite in a stroke of luck that would show them both that life is full of surprises and that things can change from one moment to the next.

The special bond between these two people was formed on February 26 of last year when Daniel was rushing to his bus stop. Every day, the boy had to walk an hour to get to the bus stop to take him to school, often causing him to be late, and the bus to leave without him. On board that morning was one of those times. Thomas ran as fast as he could with his backpack on his back, but the bus completely ignored him and left him behind once again. He had missed class; it was nothing new in his life, and he knew that the next day he’d have to do the exact same thing to try and get on the bus.

What Thomas Daniel didn’t know, however, was that as he ran down the road behind the bus that day, there was a policeman watching him. When Officer Austin Line Nema witnessed the entire scene in silence, sitting on the hood of his police car, the officer saw Thomas chasing the school bus for several yards. But when the bus didn’t stop and left him behind, the officer felt very sorry for the boy and asked him if he needed help. He had hardly any work to do that day; everything was quiet, and he felt he had to help the poor boy. Thomas had been sitting on the edge of the sidewalk and was crying non-stop.

“Can I help you with something, little boy? You often miss the school bus,” asked the concerned agent, slowly approaching him and trying to calm him down. The boy was very surprised to see him, and at first, he was very frightened. He didn’t expect to see anyone there, let alone a policeman, so he kept quiet and began to wipe the tears from his face.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you off. You haven’t done anything wrong, really. I want to help you. Explain to me what happened,” said Austin to the boy, sitting next to him and smiling to calm him down and make him understand he’d done nothing wrong. Seeing him smiling after regaining his usual breathing rhythm, Thomas decided to come clean with the kind agent and explained that his mother couldn’t afford a car to take him to school, and he often missed the bus because he didn’t arrive on time.

“Mom’s doing everything she can, officer, it’s not her fault. I’d love to help her, but I’m too little still, and I can’t,” the boy explained sheepishly. Thomas was really embarrassed to have to confess the difficulties he and his mother were having and getting by, but Austin inspired a lot of confidence in him, and he felt he needed to share everything he felt with someone. He explained his whole story to him, from the beginning, without leaving a single detail out.

Hearing his story, Line Nema was very moved and felt sorry for the boy and his mother. He felt so bad that he offered to help them in any way he could. He didn’t know the boy at all and didn’t know who his mother was, but he wanted to help them. Thomas Daniel was a really special boy, and he deserved to have some luck in life, even if it was just for once.

“I know we don’t know each other, but if you’d like and your mother allows it, I could take care of driving you to school every day in my patrol car. How about that?” Austin proposed to the boy practically without thinking. He’d made a rash decision, which was unusual for him, but he felt that if he didn’t, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

“You’ll drive me to school every day, in your police car, really?” exclaimed the boy excitedly.

“I’m absolutely serious, Thomas. I’ll gladly give you a ride; it’s no problem for me. On the contrary, I’m a policeman, and it’s my duty to help all citizens, no matter how I do it,” said the policeman with a big smile.

That same afternoon, Austin made an agreement with the boy’s mother to take him to school every day. Thomas would never again be late for school or miss a lesson, thanks to the young policeman’s generosity.

“You’re an angel, sir. I don’t know how I can ever thank you,” said Thomas’s mother to the policeman after accepting his offer to take her son to school.

“You don’t owe me anything, ma’am. I’m happy to do it. Helping your son to be able to continue his education is the most important thing. Knowing that thanks to me, he’ll be able to do so is all I need to know.”

The next day, Austin arranged everything so he could drive Thomas to school and then continue his morning watch round. It was a short drive, barely 15 minutes, but with each trip, he got to know the boy a little better and learned more about him and his concerns in life.

A month after he started taking him to school, Thomas confessed to him that it was his birthday that day. He was birthday and he wanted to celebrate it at home with his friends. Thomas then invited Agent Line Nema to his birthday party, which was to take place that same day after school.

“Will you be able to come? I know you’re very busy, but I’d like you to be there, Austin. You’re doing so much for me, and offering a piece of cake is the least my mother and I can do to thank you,” the boy confessed in a sad voice.

“Of course, I’ll be there, Thomas. Nine years! Not every day, but I suppose all your friends from school will be there too, won’t they? You’ll have to look after them and have a good time with them,” asked the policeman innocently, ignoring the terrible truth the boy was hiding.

It was then that the conversation took a heartbreaking turn. Thomas confessed that he used to be bullied at school and that he was worried no one would come to his birthday. Austin was shocked to hear the things that Thomas had to endure at school at the hands of his friends, and he was really worried about him. So he decided to come to his birthday party without fail and check that everything was okay.

A few hours later, Agent Line Nema arrived at Thomas’s party. Unfortunately, he was the only one who did, apart from Thomas’s mother and a couple of kids who lived downstairs and didn’t look like they were having much fun. None of the boy’s classmates had shown up, and the agent also noticed there was no cake for Thomas either.

Thomas apologized to Austin for the absence of the birthday cake and for the boring party he’d prepared. An hour later, the party was over, and everyone went home. But Austin couldn’t get the look of sadness on little Daniel Thomas’s face out of his mind. The scene broke Agent Line Nema’s heart, but he wasn’t about to let Daniel celebrate his big day that way.

The day after Daniel’s birthday, Line Nema and other members of the Grand Rapids Police Department he had spoken with decided to surprise the little boy with a birthday party he’d remember forever.

“Why are you doing all this for that little kid? You hardly know him,” asked one of his fellow squad members as they were setting up the birthday surprise. The question didn’t take him by surprise; in fact, he’d expected it. He’d asked it himself a few weeks earlier and had struggled to find the answer. Now, however, he was very clear about why he did it and wasn’t afraid to admit it.

“To that kid, everything in life has gone wrong, and yet he’s pure goodness and still has the ability to dream. It reminds me how lucky I’ve been in my life and how little I’m grateful for it because my life has always been easy and full of success. But still, I’ve always felt incomplete and sad. Helping him has brought meaning back to being a police officer, something that has not motivated me much lately.

That kid is big-hearted and an inspiration to me, and he deserves all the help in the world for that alone,” Austin confessed to his partner with great emotion. Everything he told him was something he already knew, but saying it out loud made it all the more real and intense. He felt great about helping little Thomas and wanted to let him know that he was not alone and that he could always count on him for whatever he needed.

The next day, Officer Line Nema and his teammate surprised Thomas with a nice

follow-up party when he got off the bus on his way home from school. They surprised him with a giant personalized Krispy Kreme donut cake that said “Happy Birthday,” a goodie bag from the Grand Rapids Police with toys, t-shirts, hats, and more, and a quartet of singers.

Little Thomas couldn’t believe his eyes and burst into tears of joy. “It was the best birthday of my life! Thank you, Austin, you’re a real hero,” Thomas told Line Nema at the end of this celebration.

“The real hero is you, my little friend. Your big heart and your willpower are the inspiration we all need to continue making this world a better place,” the agent replied excitedly while giving him a big hug.

That day was unforgettable for both of them. Thomas Daniel had his first birthday party with friends, and Austin Line Nema, after a long time, felt at peace with himself again and had found the generosity of that little boy, the long-lost inspiration to go on with his life. The two met in difficult times in their lives: one was just beginning to live, and the other had forgotten why he was doing it. Finding each other saved them and reminds us all of how wonderful and unexpected life can be.