Teen Calls Cops on Family; Cop Buys Him a Bed

South Carolina officer goes beyond call of duty to help needy teen
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted May 9, 2014 4:50 PM CDT

Few calls to police go quite as well as the one 13-year-old Cameron Simmons placed a few weeks ago. After an argument with his mom, the Sumter, SC, teen called the police to say he was done living with his family. Officer Gaetano Acerra soon arrived and told Simmons to stick it out. "I said, 'You have it good, you have a roof over your head,'" Acerra tells WISTV 10. But Acerra saw that Simmons didn't have it so good; his bedroom, for example, lacked a bed.

Acerra gave the teen his number and said he'd try to help. Weeks later he showed up in a truck bearing a bed, a TV, a desk, a chair, and even a Wii. "I did it because I could. It was the right thing to do." Since WISTV aired the story, the police department says people have called asking how they, too, can help the family. Acerra's brother is MMA fighter Ferdinando Acerra, and his Facebook post about the good deed also is generating offers of help, notes the Huffington Post. (Click to read about another police officer who played Good Samaritan, this time after a shoplifting arrest.)

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