Boy Vows to Deliver Superhero Cards to Every NYPD Cop
— -- A 7-year-old Brooklyn, New York, boy and his mother are on a mission to hand-deliver superhero cards to every police officer to thank them for their service.
Zachary Becerra and mom Rosa Ortiz of the Williamsburg neighborhood have dedicated every Saturday since December to visiting New York police officers. So far they’ve gone to 52 precincts, seven transit units, two housing units and 13 specialty units.
It all started when Zachary heard about last year’s shooting deaths of police Dets. Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.
“He was distraught,” Ortiz told ABC News today, speaking on her son’s behalf because he was in school. “He couldn’t understand why that happened and I had to sit down and explain to him that there are good people and sometimes bad things happen.”
Zachary told his mother he wanted to do something to show appreciation for law enforcement, so Ortiz suggested delivering cards, some of which he signs and some of which he draws on. Zachary then came up with the superhero theme “because he says that police officers are superheroes,” Ortiz added.
Although Ortiz said she hadn’t originally planned on making this a weekly routine, Zachary insisted that they thank all police officers, all 34,500 uniformed officers.
“A lot of officers ask him to sign his name on the cards and sometimes we’ve gone to precincts where he draws something for them to put on the bulletin board,” Ortiz said, adding that officers have given him shirts, hats, backpacks and patches in return.
“They take pictures, they talk to him, they give him advice,” Ortiz said of the police officers. “They tell him that he’s the hero. It’s been wonderful.”
Ortiz said her son is most excited about possible visits to the Aviation Unit, Highway Patrol and the Missing Persons Squad, and that he hopes to one day be police commissioner.
