An 8-year-old Sapulpa girl is all smiles again after the Sapulpa Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) stepped in to replace a bicycle that had been stolen earlier in the summer.
Jazmyn, who says she will be entering the third grade, has been in the foster care system since she was six years old. Her foster parents, Mark and Megan Morris, have had custody of Jazmyn since March of 2023.
Last May, Jazmyn received the purple bicycle as an early birthday gift from her grandparents. It was her first bike, and her foster mom says she was thrilled to have a bike to ride around with her foster siblings and other kids in the neighborhood.
After Jazmyn left home for a short summer vacation, Morris said they noticed a couple of weeks later that the bike had gone missing. After searching everywhere they could think of, they came to the realization that it had been stolen.
Morris was heartbroken for Jazmyn. “There were four other bikes in the yard, and they took that one, I guess it’s because it’s so pretty.”
The bike had been purchased from a special shop in Tulsa, so Morris, hoping that someone would recognize it, put out a cry for help on Facebook. “Whoever did this didn’t just take a bike—they took her joy, her sense of normalcy, and one of the only things she had to her name,” Morris said on a post to a community Facebook group in June.
Unfortunately, the bike was not recovered, but Sapulpa Police Officer Alex Short said the post caught his eye, and he saw an opportunity for the local FOP.
The Sapulpa FOP is a non-profit that receives funding from generous donors to give back to the community. Short said he petitioned the FOP to provide the funding to buy Jazmyn a new bike, and the organization agreed. They were even able to find it in the exact color of the girl’s previous bike.
When Officer Kayla Clements reached out to Sapulpa Times to inform us of the gift, they hadn’t told Jazmyn what was happening. As far as she knew, Jazmyn was just coming to the police department “just to talk.” But when Captain Troy Foreman wheeled out her new bicycle, her eyes lit up and she wasted no time taking it to the parking lot to try it out.
Morris was surprised at the FOPs kindness. “I didn’t think they’d get her the same one, since it was such an expensive bike, but it’s great that they were able to find it,” she said.
Jazmyn was too busy riding the bike to talk much about it, but did stop long enough to say she was “so happy” about the gift, before speeding off again.
The good news didn’t end there for Jazmyn, who has now learned she’s going to be formally adopted by her foster family.
