Officer Sabrina Sackosky saved a family of ducklings from a sewer in the Whitman Square shopping center. SOURCE: SABRINA SACKOSKY
Two police officers were recently named Officers of the Month in the 8th district after arresting a pair of alleged armed robbers, while two other members of the district were cited by their commander for their exceptional community service.
Officers Colleen McLain and Ernest Walker received their Officer of the Month awards during the May 4 meeting of the 8th Police District Advisory Council. They were recognized for their actions of March 5.
Shortly before 8 p.m. that Saturday night, two males — whose ages were not disclosed — entered Original Boston Pizza at 9227 Frankford Ave. and ordered a cheese steak. Both patrons then left the shop. A few minutes later, one of the males returned to pick up the order. But he grabbed the steak from an employee and fled without paying, police said. The crook allegedly tried to escape on a bicycle, but fell. When an employee approached him on the ground, the crook allegedly flashed a handgun and fled.
McLain and Walker arrived at the scene a short time later and got descriptions of the gunman as well as the guy who was with him inside the pizza shop. The officers spotted a car about a block away with three male occupants, two of whom matched the descriptions given. The officers instructed the passengers to exit the car. One of them was carrying a black BB gun that had no red safety tip on the muzzle. The pizza shop employee identified both suspects as the males who were in his shop earlier.
During follow-up investigation by police, one of the suspects admitted to the pizza shop robbery as well as a robbery at Jacobs Playground, 4500 Linden Ave., one night earlier.
The commander of the 8th district, Capt. Adam Friedman, also recognized Officers Carol Stratton and Sabrina Sackosky for their compassionate actions early this month.
On May 3, a parent called 911 to report that a child with autism had gone missing from his home near Grant Avenue and Academy Road. The boy left his home on a bicycle.
Stratton was on her way to the house when she learned via police radio that another officer had found the missing boy. Stratton went to pick up the boy in her police car. On the way to his home, the boy told Stratton that he had been teased by other children on his school bus about his broken eyeglasses, so he decided to ride his bike to an eye doctor’s office to get new glasses.
At home, the boy’s parents told Stratton that he had broken his glasses twice before and that they had exhausted their insurance coverage, so they could not afford new glasses. So Stratton took the boy to the eye doctor’s office and bought him a new pair. The following day, Stratton went to the boy’s bus stop hoping to greet the bus and teach the other kids that bullying is bad. But the bus had already departed by the time Stratton got there.
Knowing that the boy likes basketball and Legos, the officer went to a store and bought him a new ball and Legos as gifts.
That same day, Sackosky channeled her inner wildlife advocate in saving a family of ducklings from a sewer. She and Stratton were on patrol near the Whitman Square shopping center on Roosevelt Boulevard when someone reported that ducklings were stranded under the intake grate of a sewer next to the Longhorn Steakhouse.
When the officers got there, the mother duck was quacking loudly in distress. About a dozen fluffy ducklings had fallen through the openings in the grate. With the help of a passer-by and a restaurant employee, Sackosky pried open the grate and climbed into the hole, which was more than five feet deep. One by one, she pulled the ducklings from the muck on the floor and returned them to their anxious mother.
After the last duckling had been rescued, the mother duck rounded up her little ones and waddled across the parking lot toward a nearby stream. ••
8th Police District news: Officers Colleen McLain and Ernest Walker were recently named Officers of the Month in the 8th district after arresting a pair of alleged armed robbers. SOURCE: 8TH PDAC
