"For someone with a history of run-ins with law enforcement, who spent months in jail for an aggravated assault years ago, the Police Department's "good citizen" recognition meant more than the $26 in cash in the wallet."

Just goes to show that you can never give up on anyone because you never know when they might one day simply "change" for the better......

And by the way, kudos to the cops, who almost certainly had a number of others who were deserving of this award as well.  


To provide it to a man who they'd arrested previously says a lot about that department....


Homeless man honored for returning wallet, ID
DOC officer dropped billfold, badge in lot
by Michael Ferraresi - May. 15, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

When an unemployed furniture mover flagged him down to return a lost wallet, Phoenix police Officer Jerry Paprocki thought little of the gesture.

But after finding out the wallet belonged to an Arizona Department of Corrections officer who dropped it in the parking lot outside a hardware store, Paprocki recognized what he described as a rare good deed.

The man who found the wallet passed up on pocketing cash and credit cards, in addition to the DOC officer's badge and identification card - items of value on the black market.

Every single item in the wallet was returned to the owner.

Paprocki said he was impressed that a homeless man with little more than a room at a central Phoenix halfway house would go out of his way to help a stranger.

Earlier this week, Paprocki presented Rodney Hapney, 42, with a Police Department certificate to recognize him for his role in the April incident.

"He said he was going to go home and put that thing on his wall and use it every day as encouragement," said Paprocki, a seven-year Phoenix police veteran based at the city's Cactus Park Precinct.

Hapney found the wallet in a parking lot near 35th Avenue and Bethany Home Road as he walked to a nearby Walmart for a drink of water.

For someone with a history of run-ins with law enforcement, who spent months in jail for an aggravated assault years ago, the Police Department's "good citizen" recognition meant more than the $26 in cash in the wallet.

"I just wanted to shake the man's hand, see the look on his face and be done with it," said Hapney, who ended up living on the streets after he moved to Phoenix from Michigan in 1992.

After losing his job as a mover, Hapney said he worked his way off the streets. He said he hoped the chance encounter with the wallet might somehow help him land a job in construction or in a warehouse, anything where he could work with his hands.

But for now, the simple paper certificate provided him with validation and hope.

"I was gloating all day, showing everybody and feeling really good about myself," Hapney said.