Feel Good Moment: Rhode Island State Police Helps Little Boy with Request

The Hope Valley Barracks of the Rhode Island State Police received a letter from Brooklyn, NY in the Fall of 2017. Corporal Lawens Fevrier read the letter from Will Ketcher, a four-year-old who claimed that he lost his stuffed cheetah named “Roger” and requested the Highway Patrol to find him. “I love him,” the letter read.

If that isn’t enough to melt your heart, don’t worry, there’s more. Will included a drawing and a description of his beloved stuffed animal, along with an explanation of how he went missing. “He fell out of the car window on Interstate 95 around West Greenwich. He is about 12 inches long.”

Will’s mom and dad knew it was too dangerous to pullover and search for Roger, so Will’s dad recommended that they send the letter in an effort to get Roger back.

Fevrier told WPRI, “We actually did send search and rescue out there,” he quipped. “Unfortunately, it was raining and we just couldn’t find the one that he lost.”

Months went by before Ketcher arrived home to find a package waiting. “I saw the return label on the box and I couldn’t even believe it,” Stephanie Ketcher said. The Rhode Island State Police had sent Will a brand new stuffed Cheetah with a special note.

“On behalf of the Rhode Island State Police, we are so sorry that Roger was lost,” the note read. “We spent days looking for him on the highway. We couldn’t find him. We did find another cheetah walking around the highway. We stopped to talk to him. He said that he was looking for a new home in the Big Apple and we thought of you. Before we sent him to you we had to make him a Cheetah Trooper. The first cheetah trooper in the history of the Rhode Island State Police.”

Will’s mom, shocked by the act of random kindness that “restored her faith in humanity,” said, “Everybody we have told this story to is moved almost to tears. Some actually to tears.”

“There’s so much negative stuff going on in the world, we’re inundated with it... it’s so refreshing to have something like this happen that just reminds you that there are really good people out there.”

I have to say; Will’s new friend has a pretty cool name. “Rhody” sure is a special cheetah.