A police officer stepped in as a mentor when a boy in his school district started getting into trouble on his long walk to school. The boy didn’t have a bicycle, so the officer posed a challenge: if he stayed out of trouble he could earn a bike.
Officer Wyatt Pulver of Wichita, Kansas, has been working for Maize Police Department since August 2022, when the city of Maize and his department hired extra officers to work in the school district for safety purposes. On his first day on the job, Pulver met Brandon, 11, in the playground.
“He’s friendly. Everybody’s friendly there,” Pulver, 41, told The Epoch Times. “Some kids get to know the police officers and the disciplinarians at school more than others, and Brandon got into a little bit of trouble, so I got to know him.”
Sharing more about Brandon’s personality, Pulver said that he’s a nice kid who likes to please those around him. While he reasoned that could be a “good” thing, unless he found some bad-influence friends.
“I learned about his situation when he got in trouble for taking another kid’s bike,” Pulver said. “I asked him why he did it, and he told me he had a long walk home from school.”
Brandon walked 40 minutes to school and back every day. To Pulver’s knowledge, every other kid with the same length commute rode a bicycle. When fall temperatures hit 100 degrees, Pulver started giving Brandon water and snacks for his journey home, but Brandon’s need hit a nerve.
“He also told me he'd been missing out on some activities with other friends because he didn’t have a bike,” Pulver said. “He couldn’t go very far safely or quickly, and that got me to thinking; if one little thing like that could change his life, and I didn’t do it, then why am I a police officer? Why am I even trying to help in the first place?”
Pulver happened to have a spare bicycle in his garage. He cleared his idea with the school, the police department, and Brandon’s mom and spruced up the bike. Then, he made a deal with Brandon.
“He would earn the bike with good behavior,” Pulver said. “He was real motivated right away, but I think he really started to take things seriously after he made a few mistakes ... he thought, ‘Oh, this is real. It cost me a bicycle.’”
Whenever Brandon had a setback, Pulver made sure they talked it over. The pre-teen was very receptive and didn’t want to make mistakes, the officer said. “He wanted his life to get better, and that’s hard work for any of us to change anything in our life.”
Around three weeks later, in early October, Pulver had seen enough improvement in Brandon’s behavior to declare the challenge a success. He handed over the keys and told a beaming Brandon he could unlock his new bike from the rack in front of the school.
Pulver said: “He said his eyes were ‘full of water’ when he teared up a little bit ... to be honest, my eyes were welling up too! It was an emotional moment. But it was a big, big moment for Brandon, and I’m hoping he can move on in his life and always think about that accomplishment.
“You can get anyone a present and it won’t change anything,” the officer said. “But if somebody earns something, if it’s truly theirs and they worked for it, then it’s going to be something they treasure and it’s going to promote change in their life.”
Pulver, who worked numerous trade jobs before finding his “perfect fit” as a police officer, believes in forging relationships with the community. Brandon was open from the outset. The 11-year-old moved away with his family shortly after he earned his bike, but Pulver keeps in touch with his mother and she passes his messages on to Brandon.
“The last time I got to hear from Brandon I told him that we missed him at school, and he sent back a voice message saying the same thing ... I’m hoping to hear from him more in the future,” Pulver said. “I know from how hard he worked just to earn this bicycle, to change his behavior, whatever he sets his mind to I have absolute faith he will be able to do.”
He shared: “I’m not special, and there’s nothing I did here that I wouldn’t expect anyone else to do in the same position. So if you’re out at a restaurant and you see someone dining alone, or if you’re at the grocery store and you see somebody struggling to pay for something, we can help them out. Invite them to your table, or help them a little with their groceries.
“Just open your eyes and look around, there’s plenty of people that are hurting and in need around us. Just by changing the way we see things, we can make that better.”
