When 11-year-old Mariabella's bike was stolen earlier this week, the family was shocked to find out it was taken right from their house.
“My neighbour was banging on my door and my dog was barking and I opened my door and she said there was a fella who just grabbed a bike and took off," said Mariabella's mother Niki Lelieveld.
When it happened, Lelieveld told her kids she was going to try to see if she could catch up with the teen that took off with the bike.
In the meantime, Mariabella called the police.
Constable Mike Donnelly was working the night shift, for the Hanover Police service, when he got a call to respond to a bike robbery in progress.
When he arrived he took down the family’s information and shortly after handed Mariabella’s mother some money for a new bike.
Lelieveld said she tried to refuse the money but said Donnell insisted.
“It’s important for an eleven-year-old to have a bicycle so I just wanted to help out as much as I can,” said Donnelly.
The next day the family woke up and found that a neighbour had bought a replacement bike for Mariabella.
Lelieveld said she tried to give the friend some money but they refused, so they decided to use the money that Constable Donnelly gave them to buy some accessories.
“We were just saying how blessed we are being in a community like this there are so many bad stories out there that we don’t always hear the good ones,” she said, “We are just so thankful that there are officers like him around.”
Hanover Chief of Police Chris Knoll said this isn’t the first time the Constable Donnelly has done something of this nature.
“I think it’s a very proud moment for our community for our organization the Hanover Police service and for the policing community at large,” said Knoll
Mariabella now plans to use the extra money to buy and install headlights, gloves, a bike bag and a bell.
With reporting from Carina Sledz
