Earlier this week, Carolyn Hammett and her husband were driving home in Greenbelt, Maryland when the saw something peculiar. They saw a police officer standing in the middle of the road. This was strange because it was pouring rain outside. Hammett was confused at first and she thought that the road must have been flooded and the police officer was stuck, but when they got closer, she realized the police officer was standing over a turtle. It seems that Master Police Officer Sharnise Hawkins was helping a snapping turtle cross the road.
“I couldn’t believe that she was standing there guarding that turtle in all that rain,” Hammett said in an interview, “Not many people would do that, regardless of their occupation. She was serving and protecting in every sense of the word.” When Hammett realized what the police officer was trying to do, her husband immediately pulled over and got out with an umbrella. He used the umbrella to shield Officer Hawkins from the rain until the turtle got to the other side of the road.
“The officer thanked us and we thanked her and we all went on our way,” Hammett added. “She was smiling a big broad smile the entire time and she never seemed to care that she was drenched completely through. She was delightful, inspirational, kind, all the things that you think a police officer should be.”
The images of the police officer and the turtle under the rain have since been posted in social media, where it quickly went viral.