Deployed Soldier Surprises Mom at Traffic Stop With a Little Help From the Police
Army Staff Sgt. Salomon Robinson was on a short visit to his Georgia home.
— -- A soldier who was home on a brief leave from a deployment in Iraq surprised his mom by showing up when she was pulled over by police in a traffic stop.
Army Staff Sergeant Salomon Robinson has spent the past year in Iraq on his third deployment. He called the police department in West Point, Georgia, on Tuesday, to see if they could help arrange a surprise for his mom, Claudette Hutchinson, the next day.
“I said, ‘Absolutely, yes,’” West Point Police Chief Tony Bailey told ABC News. “He knew we were going to help but didn’t know how.”
Bailey said Robinson showed up at the police station early Wednesday morning, fresh off his flight home from Iraq. Just a few hours later, Bailey deployed one of his officers, Cameron Mitchell, to pull Robinson’s mom over as she drove her car.
Dash cam video captured the moment that Mitchell asked Hutchinson to give him her license and then to get out of her car to examine a scratch on her car.
When Mitchell told Hutchinson that his partner would bring back her license, Robinson got out of the patrol car instead and surprise his mom with balloons and flowers.
"I'm going to kill him. He got me good,” Hutchinson told local ABC affiliate WTVM-TV. “I'm glad to see him though.”
ABC News was not able to reach either Hutchinson or Robinson. Bailey described them as a close-knit family with a great sense of humor.
“It was heartwarming and the kind of an experience that I can’t even put into words, to be honest,” Bailey said of the surprise. “To be able to help him celebrate, it’s life changing.”
Bailey added, “There’s nothing that young man could have asked that we wouldn’t have made happen. Our men and women who serve sacrifice more than most people would understand.”