A North Carolina mother was already having a bad day on Monday as she pumped the last bit of gas she could afford into her car. As she was getting ready to leave, she heard a knock on her window, and as soon as she saw who it was, she figured her bad day was about to get a lot worse.

Fortunately, that’s not exactly what happened to Kat Hartman, who was at a Huntersville 7-Eleven with her son, Liam, reported the Charlotte Observer.

Huntersville police Officer Thomas Bautista noticed that Hartman didn’t have enough money as she went to refuel her car at a gas station.

Hartman shared about the incident on Facebook – a post that quickly went viral.

Hartman said she had just sold her son’s stroller to buy the gas. When her son asked her to buy him some cholocate milk at the station, she told him she didn’t have enough money.

As Hartman prepared to drive away after putting the gas in, a knock came on her window from Officer Bautista.

“I saw you were paying in change and only put a small amount in your car,” Hartman recalled Bautista saying to her. “I told myself I was going to do something good for someone else today, so I’m going to fill up your tank.”

Hartman broke down in tears.

“I immediately started (bawling) my eyes out,” Hartman said on Facebook. “Not all cops are bad! This was amazing. I can’t thank him enough.”

By Wednesday, Hartman’s Facebook post about Bautista’s good deed had generated 21,707 likes.

It’s great to see stories about police doing good for their communities, especially with so much negative publicity recently. With each story, we get just a little more reassurance, that despite the current narrative, not all officers are bad people.

Kudos to Officer Bautista for helping out a struggling mother after setting out to help someone in need. It’s officers like him that not only help us all to be more trusting of police but help us to feel safer in our communities knowing that there are officers like him who truly care.

Sources: OpposingViews, Charlotte Observer