Good Samaritans Brighten the Holidays

Some swindler with an easy smile stole Christmas from Ada Bredice.

But a La Verne police officer and his buddy brought it back.

Bredice is an 85-year-old widow. And as she tells it, the tale begins with her desire to put some Christmas lights on her mobile home in La Verne. The problem was that three strokes had left her handicapped, so Bredice was not about to climb up on the roof to hang the lights herself.

One day last week, she figured out what to do. As she headed out to the hairdresser, a young man came to the house looking for work as a handyman. She asked him if he could hang the lights, and then paid him $45 to buy some.

She said she thought nothing of giving him the cash. He had nice short hair, was very cordial, and even gave her a hug. He wrote out a receipt and promised to return the next day.

He never did. While Bredice waited inside and watched TV, a cold reality began to sink in.

She called the number on the man’s flier. A woman answered and said, furiously: “Is he using this number again?”

Bredice said she felt sad and embarrassed. She knew better, she added, but she had let her guard down.

Most of her life, she didn’t have to be so wary of even clean-cut strangers. But since her husband died 19 years ago and she moved to the eastern Los Angeles County suburb to be near her sister, the world had changed. The rip-off took another divot out of her faith in humanity. She just wanted to forget it all.

Her daughter, however, was furious and told her to call the police. Bredice did.

Officer Michael Martinez, 29, came out and took a report. He politely scolded Bredice for getting taken in by such an easy con.

But as he left, Martinez said, he couldn’t help think that the whole event was just so depressing. He couldn’t stop thinking of his own grandmother.

A few days later, there was a knock at Bredice’s door. It was Martinez, his wife, Angie, and fellow Officer Michael Burks, dressed in plain clothes. They were carrying boxes of lights, enough to decorate the eaves and bushes. They had traveled from Target to Pic ‘n’ Save, looking for the right lights--colored ones for the junipers and plain ones for the aluminum trim.

Bredice cried. In fact, they said they all got a little teary. Then they got a ladder and spent three hours decorating.

“She was going to kiss Christmas off because this idiot took her money,” Martinez said. “I was just happy to help.”

Bredice tried to pay them for the lights, then $20 each for their time. But they refused. They wouldn’t even take some chocolate.

“He’s the sweetest man I ever met,” Bredice said of Martinez. “My house has never been decorated like this. The place is beautiful at night.”

Meanwhile, La Verne police officers have found the suspect; they are still investigating and have not arrested him, Martinez said.