Fargo Police Officer Says Helping a Homeless Man Was Just a Part of Job

one woman took a photo of officer Dirk Thiedeman helping the man and it went viral

FARGO, ND — Officer Dirk Thiedeman’s parents visited recently and each had their own comments to make when they did a ride along with their son.

“My dad made the comment of ‘wow, you really love what you do,'” Thiedeman said.

Thiedeman’s mother noticed something else: the way her son treated those who are homeless.

“She’s like, I like how you just walk up and talk to them and treat them with respect, and then try and find out what they’re going to do next, what their plan is, making sure they’ve got somewhere to go,” Thiedeman said.

Now, the people of Fargo know what kind of a police officer Thiedeman is too.

Cass Mundy and her boyfriend were out to dinner in downtown Fargo when it began to downpour.

She noticed while the streets cleared, Thiedeman was helping a homeless man get out of the rain and into his squad car.

“You kind of just expect something bad to happen all the time, so when we saw that he was actually helping him, it just kind of warmed my heart.” Mundy said.

Mundy says she assumed the worst because of the society we live in.

“(People) flip out their camera and want to record everything bad that happens and post that right online,” Mundy said. “You hardly see anything good happen.”

According to Lisa Richmond from Churches United Homeless Shelter, police often do a lot of good for shelters in town.

“They are continually bringing guests to us and the other shelters,” Richmond said. “I’m not always sure they get as much credit as they deserve.”

After getting him out of the rain, Officer Thiedeman took the homeless man to Gladys Ray Homeless Shelter in Fargo.

He isn’t taking any extra credit for what he did because he says it’s part of his duty to the Fargo community.

“Just something anyone in the department would’ve done, they just so happened to be taking a picture while I was doing it,” Thiedeman said.

Mundy’s Facebook post shows a picture can still be worth a thousand words and more than 4,500 likes.