Wirral Life May 2020 | Page 16

WL WHO KNEW THE EASTER BUNNY DROVE A POLICE CAR? It was a strange Easter for all of us in lockdown this year, churches closed and no extended family gatherings for a big roast dinner on Easter Sunday, but that didn’t stop police officers from Wallasey’s Emergency Response Team taking a bit of time to spread some Easter greetings. They surprised some of the local community as families were taking their daily exercise. It certainly was a surprise to Becky McArdle from Heswall and her family who were stopped by the police on their daily walk. “We heard the sirens and saw the blue lights flashing while we were out and it made us jump but what a lovely surprise we had! The children were on their bikes when Craig pulled over. He had only stopped to give the children an Easter egg each and they were so happy - it made their Easter. They wanted to go straight home to FaceTime their Nanny. We would like to say what an amazing job the NHS, police force and all the key workers are doing, you should all be very proud of yourselves.” Craig O’ Brien who has 26 years on the force said they try as much as possible to break down barriers around the police. “We were just out on our rounds in the patrol car,” said Sergeant Craig O’ Brien, “and we happened to have a lot of spare Easter eggs this year. One of our team, Vinny Rammath, collects from us during the year and at Easter we buy eggs. Of course, this year we couldn’t donate them to the usual charities or the hospital because of the circumstances we are all in, so we thought we’d drop off a few surprises.” 16 wirrallife.com “We always say to parents, don’t tell your children we’re going to put them in jail if they’re naughty because we want them to be able to come to us if there’s a problem not run away from us! It is important to engage with young people and encourage positive interactions with the police as people too. “It’s not an easy time for anyone at the moment, and when I saw the pictures on social media and that we had 2.5k likes, it took my breath away that such small gestures could mean so much. As a dad myself, I thought it was a great idea to share a bit of joy during these difficult times and we had some brilliant reactions on Easter Sunday.”