Server covers cops' meals after an officer's funeral
Cops meet the young woman face-to-face for the first time on 'Fox & Friends'
A server's random act of kindness brought a group of Ohio police officers to tears at a Red Robin restaurant near Columbus last week.
The officers from the Wellington Police Department came in for a bite to eat after attending the funeral of Columbus SWAT officer Steven Smith, who was gunned down in a standoff on April 10.
On Wednesday, the grieving officers sat down and gave their orders to a young mom named Jessica Dunbar.
“One guy said, you know, it’s always a rough day when you gotta put a brother in the ground,” Dunbar recalled to WCMH Columbus.“Right after that I was like, I gotta do something right.”
She did better than that. After the officers were done with their meal, she dropped their $123 check face down on the table. On the back she had written:
“Your bill is on me today. I can’t imagine the day you all have had, let alone what you go through every day. I hope your days get better. So much respect. #WeSeeYou #PoliceLivesMatter #RIPOfficerSmith”
“It really touched all of our hearts,” said Wellington Police Lt. Jeff Shelton, who had been at the table. “We were crying all day, and then you got a bunch of guys and female officers in there crying. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place by the time we were done."
Dunbar's act of kindness quickly went viral after Ohio Going Blue shared a photo of the waitress and her appreciative letter. It has over 10,000 likes to date.
“I just wanted to do something nice,” Dunbar said. “You can’t put a dollar amount on making somebody happy.”
She said Smith’s death made her think of her dad, a retired police officer.
“He left behind a wife and kids,” she said. “It could’ve been me. It could’ve been my dad. People look up to them. To have them shake my hand and say ‘thank you’ to me, that was incredible.”
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