Anyone who loves Christmas knows it’d be a serious crime to try to take it away, which is what makes the Grinch so terribly dreadful in the famous Dr. Seuss book. So when one adorable 5-year-old learned about the Grinch’s “wonderful, awful” plot, he did the only thing he could think of doing in such an emergency: He called emergency services.
TyLon Pittman of Mississippi made a call to a 911 dispatcher one Saturday night, explaining to the very confused responder that the Grinch was stealing people’s Christmases and that he didn’t want him to steal his holiday, too. Little did he and his family know, the dispatcher later posted a status on Facebook about that call — which obviously got quite a bit of attention.
When Byram Police Officer Lauren Develle heard about it, she just had to know the child’s address immediately. Growing up, the cop adored the classic Christmas story and she wanted to help reassure TyLon that everything was indeed OK with his beloved holiday.
“I kind of find it really funny. Every Christmas morning, my dad wears these Grinch pants,” she said. “It’s his favorite movie. Growing up seeing the Grinch every Christmas was my favorite thing.”
Needless to say, the family was surprised to see Develle at their front door later than night. And they were even more shocked at what she had to say in response to his unfiltered call.
“The Grinch is not going to come steal your Christmas,” she said. “I won’t let that happen.”
To further reassure the boy, she actually arranged for someone to dress up as a Grinch and get in the back of her cop car a couple of days later and even allowed TyLon to question him and decide on his penance.
And what was the Grinch’s punishment? TyLon decided he should get a time-out — by far the harshest sentence by many kids’ standards. Too adorable!
This story originally appeared on our sister site www.womansworld.com.
