He wrote, “I want to be you when I grow up. Thank you for your service.”
Officer Eddie Benitez was shocked and deeply touched by Noah’s kind gesture.
“It meant everything,” he told WTSP News. “It meant that I’m supposed to wake up every morning and put on his uniform and go out there and do what I do. You know? It means that I need to keep trying to be a good example to all these young guys.”
Officer Benitez asked Smiling for a picture, which the Lakeland Police Department shared in a post on their Facebook page.
Officer Benitez now keeps the note in the front pocket of his uniform. “I’ve got it right here, ’cause I’m gonna keep it as long as I can,” he said.
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