Hero Cops Give Their Coats To Lost Boy Wandering Barefoot Near Shore Parkway

A tender moment unfolded this past weekend between a pair of police officers and a lost little boy.

Officer John Passarella and Officer Anthony Alberti of the 60th Precinct were responding to a larceny call at around 4pm on Sunday, when they noticed a 5-year-old wearing only his pajamas and no shoes, wandering around Dreier Offerman Park on Shore Parkway near 27th Avenue in Bath Beach.

“We became concerned,” Passarella told us. “My partner Anthony got him to come over, and we noticed he was disabled [in some way].”

The police officers looked around for the boy’s parents, and when nobody came to claim him, Passarella bundled the boy in his duty jacket to help him keep warm.

Passarella called his command center to find out if there were any reports of a missing child in the area. After about 10 minutes with no leads, a man came over and mentioned that he knew the child. Through some phone calls to mutual contact, the man found a number for the mother and called her.

“She came out kind of panicked and the kid just jumped into her arms,” said Passarella.

She lives across the street from the park, and hadn’t been aware her son wandered off.

Sunday had been a particularly busy day for the 60th Precinct – Passarella and his partner helped in making four arrests related to the larceny call – and running into the boy was the last thing they could have expected.

“It was one of those days where you have to adapt to your surroundings, adapt to changes,” said Passarella. “Everybody did a great job, I have a great partner, and we had a great boss on the scene. It was the best ending possible.”

Here’s a photo taken by Officer Thomas Hopkins at the scene, as tweeted by the 60th Precinct:

Passarella said his one regret about that day is not knowing his photo would end up on Twitter.

“I would have done my hair better,” he said.

With additional reporting by Ned Berke.