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LAYTON — One good deed came full circle for a Davis County sheriff’s deputy Friday, as he was in the middle of a second one.
Deputy Christopher Pope was on patrol Friday morning when he spotted a van with a registration that had expired in April.
“I usually ask, ‘why is the registration expired so far?’” Pope recounted of his conversation with the driver. “He explained to me that due to some recent medical issues that he and his wife had been having, he wasn’t able to take enough time off, had lost his job and was only able to get temp work. And temp work was only once or twice a week, if that. He said last week he didn’t even have any jobs at all to do.”
Additionally, the driver explained his previous van had broken down, he had purchased another from a neighbor using small payments and he wasn’t able to pay for the registration.
“I knew I wasn’t going to give him a citation for that because that would just compound the problems he was already having,” Pope said. “I actually released him with a warning, and as I sat there for a few minutes I didn’t feel right, I couldn’t just leave it at that.”
Pope ran the van down, and pulled it over again.
“I stopped and talked with him and asked him if he would come with me to the Tunex to get his safety and emissions and some other things done.”
Pope said he planned to pick up the tab, but shortly after visiting the Tunex located at 1141 W. Antelope Drive in Layton, the manager turned to him.
“I basically said, ‘were you at this scene?’” manager Tim Smith recalled. “I was like, ‘well, that was my cousin.’”
Smith’s cousin is Roger Bills, a man who recently suffered a major heart attack during his morning bicycle ride.
Pope, who is certified as a paramedic, was one of three officers who stepped in to save Bills. Smith saw Pope on the news and he and others recognized him in the shop.
“Without what he did for Roger, Roger wouldn’t be here today,” Smith said.
For Smith, it was a no-brainer to pick up Pope’s tab for the family’s van.
“That’s $45 that could go toward his family,” Smith said.
RaVae Bobo said she and her husband were on their way to the food bank when they were stopped by Pope.
For them, this traffic stop proved to be providential.
“God provides what we need, and he provided (deputy) Pope for us today,” Bobo said. “He says, you know, ‘there’s many blessings out there,’ and I kept telling him he was a blessing to us. It was a huge blessing.” Andrew Adams is a multimedia journalist for KSL NewsRadio and KSL-TV. His work also regularly appears in the Deseret News. Email: aadams@ksl.com
