LYNCHBURG, Va. – If you’re on Facebook, you may have seen a post from the “Living in Lynchburg” group that has since gone viral.
It’s got thousands of people talking and sharing about Lynchburg police officer Robert Sacks’ kind actions.
In the photo, Sacks is sitting down on the grass eating lunch with a man named Chris who is homeless.
“I was hoping no one was taking a picture,” Sacks said.
Sacks didn’t know someone captured the moment from Saturday morning.
He says he was driving behind businesses on Wards Road making sure no one was there when he saw the 32-year-old homeless man sitting up against the brick wall.
Sacks said he thought, ‘How can I make his day better?’ He then drove to Chick-fil-A.
“I said, ‘Do you want to have Chick-fil-A with me?’ I just wanted to sit on the ground with him a little bit and see what he sees,” Sacks said.
As cars drove by, Sacks from New Jersey and Chris from Amherst County learned they’ve got something in common: baseball.
“We were talking about his team being the Baltimore Orioles and I like the Yankees. We were talking about when we were kids, the team that we liked and the player,” Sacks said.
While neither man wanted the attention the post has gotten or for this to become a story, Sacks says there’s still a valuable lesson to be learned here.
"The good thing behind it is I hope it inspires people to try and make people’s day better,” Sacks said.
Early Tuesday, 10 News reporter Magdala Louissaint coincidentally met Chris at the same spot he and Sacks had lunch. He said he’s been homeless for about a year.
He didn’t want to be interviewed for fear of his safety.
He said just because Sacks is a police officer it doesn’t make a difference. He says Sacks is human, he was doing his job and serving the community.