To Cook And To Serve: Police Officer Comes To Elderly Woman's Aid, Makes Her Dinner

Police officers get calls for assistance for all manner of unusual reasons -- to deliver babies, rescue people stuck in odd places and there’s even a famous YouTube video of a 911 call a boy made seeking help with his math homework.

When Jackson Township Police Officer James Reynolds was dispatched to the home of an 87-year-old woman recently, it was with some concern: she had set off her Life Alert button.

You know, the company that’s famous for the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” commercial.

It turned out, however, that the woman needed assistance ... but of a different kind. And the officer who responded took the motto “To protect and to serve” to a whole new level.

According to a Jackson resident whose Facebook profile is Bobbie-Jo Bobaby, the woman, who had medications to take that had to be taken with a meal ... and she needed someone to cook it for her.

So Reynolds not only cooked dinner for the woman, but he made sure she ate it, according to Bobbie-Jo’s post, which was captured in a screenshot by the Jackson Township Police Department and shared on the department’s Facebook page.

Bobbie-Jo, who is a neighbor of the woman, told the Patch Sunday night that the woman’s home health aide had left her dinner in the microwave to be warmed up. But the microwave wasn’t plugged in.

“After realizing what the situation was and that her microwave was unplugged, (Reynolds) helped her by fixing it and warming up her dinner,” Bobbie-Jo said.

Reynolds went even further -- washing the woman’s dishes and setting her coffee pot for the next morning, Bobbie-Jo said.

“Officer Reynolds never hesitated to assist her and make sure she would be OK for the rest of the night,” she told the Patch. ”He never batted an eyelash at helping her he just said she needed help and he was there to help in any way he could.”

“I commend you for being a wonderful person,” Bobbie-Jo wrote.

Capt. Steven Laskiewicz, who is the Uniformed Services Division Commander and the public information officer for the Jackson police department, said in the post sharing Bobbie-Jo’s comments that Reynolds was the officer.

“The Jackson Police Department would like to publicly recognize Officer Reynolds’ commitment to serving our community. We would also like to thank our residents for your support of the police department and all of our officers, who are out serving the community every day,” Laskiewicz wrote.

“Officer Reynolds is by far one of the best officers I have ever encountered and just want to make sure our community knows that we are blessed to have such a wonderful officer serving and protecting us,” Bobbie-Jo said.