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A tourist’s snapshot of a New York City police officer giving new boots to a barefoot homeless man in Times Square has created an online sensation.

NYPD Officer’s Kindness Sparks Online Sensation

A tourist’s snapshot of a New York City police officer giving new boots to a barefoot homeless man in Times Square has created an online sensation.

From the Huffington Post:

You have to like what NYPD Officer Larry DePrimo did for a barefoot man in Manhattan one frigid night this month. In fact, more than 260,000 Facebook users have “liked” DePrimo’s actions, a number that’s growing every day.

After a tourist from Arizona snapped a photo of DePrimo, of Holbrook, giving the man socks and boots to ward off the cold, the image became an instant hit on the NYPD’s Facebook page.

As of late Wednesday, the photo had been shared 47,716 times, boosting subscribers to the department’s 5-month-old page by 7,000, to 95,000, officials said.

“I had two pairs of wool winter socks and combat boots, and I was cold,” DePrimo, 25, said Wednesday, recalling the night of Nov. 14, when he encountered an unidentified, shoeless man on the sidewalk on Seventh Avenue near 44th Street.

DePrimo offered to get him socks and shoes.

“I never had a pair of shoes,” the man replied, according to DePrimo, who’s assigned to the Sixth Precinct and has been on the force nearly three years.

The officer walked to a Skechers store on 42nd Street and shelled out $75 for insulated winter boots and thermal socks. He returned to the man, knelt down and put the footwear on him.

“He smiled from ear to ear,” DePrimo said. “It was like you gave him a million dollars.”

The officer asked the man if he wanted a cup of coffee, but he graciously declined and went on his way.

“I didn’t think anything of it,” DePrimo said of his generosity.

But during dinner that night, he got a text message from a friend. The photo had gone viral.

“I was absolutely shocked,” he said.

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23 Comments

  • Benny Boy

    YASHER KOACH TO OFFICER DEPRIMO, doing what the Rebbe urged all nations to do: ACTS OF KINDNESS to bring MOSHIACH. For sure there’s police officers all over Brooklyn and Manhattan or upstate New York who are doing acts of kindness daily.

  • Moishie

    after the ma’aseh in CH, it’s nice to see that there are good cops in the NYPD! Perhaps we can get NYPD Officer Larry DePrimo transferred to Crown Heights. We can use more like him here!

  • Anonymous

    Most police officers are quite nice and helpful. But it’s the other few that get all the attention, giving a poor name to the rest.

    Just because a few vines on a grape farm are moldy, doesn’t mean the whole crop is.

  • Impressed!

    How nice to know that there are people like Officer DePrimo! A shining role model of character and persona! There are not many like him.

  • Not All Police Are Low Quality-Only Here

    Only the ones in areas rife with anti semitism – like Crown Heights. The good ones don’t come to or stay long in our community because they are not allowed to do their job properly in a way that would give them self respect.

  • dst

    this man should become a leader for Acts of Kindness among the non Jews. PLUS the woman who took the picture and distributed it was brilliant, should we call it high level “K-IQ” (Kindness IQ). this is the real stuff.

  • HMoss, MCY

    Simply beautiful, beautiful

    And this morning there was a story of a young lady who made a video about the ruins from Sandy, which aroused sympathy from a famous recording star to pledge a charity concert.

    And on Tuesday there were no incidents of violence in the entire NYC; And since when?!

    Good news.

  • We do these things everyday

    I have often bought or given away things of my own to a poor person even at times that I did not have money. I would not want a huge hue and cry to be made and it wouldn’t be appropriate. Before we start falling over ourselves with adoration for the police, lets keep it in perspective: A human being did an act of kindness which is basically between him and G-d and its nice for the world to sometimes get a glimpse of these things. That’s it.

  • Take a lesson POs

    Take a lesson from this Police Officer. Only people who care about people should be allowed to become police Officers. We need more like Officer Larry Deprimo.

  • To #12

    This story needed to be publicized because unfortunately people see a few incidints and judge the entire NYPD based on them. There are many many good hearted police officers who CHOSE this profession to help and protect people, an surely this officer went above and beyond. Yasher koach to him and all the NYPD

  • To #15

    People are not judging the entire NYPD. They are judging the one in Crown Heights, and others like it, which have an alarmingly disproportionate incidence of corrupt behavior. I have come across very decent police officers in other neighborhoods who personify your description. That does not in any way invalidate the seriousness of the problem here and in other parts of NYC- of a government resource that is supposed to represent the public good and does the opposite.

  • Freylakhn Olam

    Happy Hanukkah to All Truly This is the Good Samaritan Tikkun olam. Amen ve Amen.

  • Footware before Shelter

    I was just thinking about why the Talmud teaches that footware should be a priority even before shelter.

    Then I read this.

    There’s my answer.

  • chasidisher shliach

    It’s called going out of your comfort zone and seeking out somebody in need.

    We are busy trying to make a dirah bitachtoinim by davening, a lot of words, and by learning, a lot of words, and doing mitzvos, with a lot of dikduk and hidur, and we even learn about mashiach,

    But we don’t give a damn.

    This cop does.