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Good deed recorded by Charles City Police Chief’s dashboard cam goes viral

This is a still shot taken from a video recorded by Charles City Police Chief Hugh Anderson. The video, which has quickly seen much attention on social media and elsewhere, shows a young man — Evan — get off his bicycle, cross a street, and help an older adult carrying a bag walk back across the road near the Apple Valley Assisted Living facility in Charles City.
This is a still shot taken from a video recorded by Charles City Police Chief Hugh Anderson. The video, which has quickly seen much attention on social media and elsewhere, shows a young man — Evan — get off his bicycle, cross a street, and help an older adult carrying a bag walk back across the road near the Apple Valley Assisted Living facility in Charles City.
By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Charles City Police Chief Hugh Anderson said he was stopped at a stop sign on Tuesday, and he saw something happening in the corner of his eye.

“I saw a kid doing something, and so I looked over to see what the kid was doing,” Anderson said.

When he realized that kid was helping an older gentleman, he turned the dashboard camera in that direction to record it.

Anderson ended up capturing a heartwarming moment — a random act of kindness.

DASHCAM VIDEO

The video showed a young man — Evan — get off his bicycle, cross a street, and help an older adult carrying a bag walk back across the road near the Apple Valley Assisted Living facility.

“It was really a good feeling to see this,” Anderson said. “A lot of times, we as police officers just see the negative end of society. It’s very heartwarming to see something that changes our outlook a little bit.”

In the video, Evan hops off his bike and disappears from the screen, then the camera swings to the right, where he re-emerges holding the hand of the man as he escorts him across the road. Anderson posted the video to the Charles City Police Department Facebook page, and it quickly “went viral.”

The post on the Charles City Police Department’s Facebook page had gotten more than 2,000 views by Wednesday afternoon and had been shared nearly 60 times. By noon Thursday, the video had more than 11,000 views, nearly 650 likes and 150 shares. A handful of television and other media outlets throughout the country had put the video on their websites, and most of those quickly had a large number of views, likes and shares as well.

Comments on the post were nearly as heartwarming as the video itself. Apparently, it’s a breath of fresh air for many — to see a good deed heralded in an era when it seems like there’s so much bad news.

“This makes my heart so happy!” exclaimed one Facebook comment. “Kids get such a negative vibe so often, and it’s so great to share their kindness!”

Another comment said, in part: “Our town needs strong leaders! People are always watching, even when you do good things!”

“I just got teary eyed,” someone else typed. “You have done something right!”

Another commenter said, “Thanks Evan, and thanks to his parents for raising a caring son.”

Attempts by the Press to reach out to Evan and his parents hadn’t yet received a response by press time on Thursday, but according to Anderson, that isn’t a surprise, because Evan didn’t do the good deed for publicity or attention.

“He wasn’t doing it for show,” Anderson said. “He didn’t even know I was watching, and he certainly didn’t know he was being recorded.”

Anderson said he had spoken with Evan’s parents, to tell them about his son’s kindness.

“I talked to his parents and they were very encouraged that he would do something like that,” he said. “He’s a very polite young man, I was very impressed with him.”

Anderson said that even though the video of Evan is unique, that doesn’t mean there aren’t others doing good deeds every day, and it’s important for the public — and the police — to remember that.

“He’s not the only one,” Anderson said. “We can’t forget that there are kids, and there are people out there who are good people.”

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