On August 7th, a man called the police when he was approached by a 7-year-old Ohio boy outside of a drug store. The child was alone and holding a stuffed animal which he was trying to sell in exchange for money. The police immediately reported to the site where the child was scene and found him still standing outside. Officer Steve Dunham questioned him about what he was doing alone outside. The young boy told the officer that he was trying to sell his stuffed animal so he could make some money and buy food with it, he was hungry and hadn’t eaten in several days. Officer Dunham told CNN that hearing this broke his heart. He took the boy to Subway and they had dinner together.
In the meantime, other officers went to the boy’s home and found three other children there. The house they live in had garbage and liquor bottles everywhere. It also had a strong smell of cat urine and possible human urine as well. The children’s parents were home at the time and they were charged with five counts of child neglect, to which they pleaded “not guilty” on August 9th. They were not jailed but they have a pretrial conference scheduled in September. The young boy spent a few hours at the police station and bonded with Officer Dunham. All the children will be staying with relatives while their parents are on trial and a local church in Franklin has begun collecting donations for the family.
According to Officer Dunham, what he did for the boy is not something that should be considered out of the ordinary because he claims that he was only doing his job. Many officers in America do heroic things for citizens every day but some get highlighted, like Officer Dunham.
