A police officer is being hailed a hero for adopting a heroin addict’s baby, after finding the woman injecting drugs while eight months pregnant.
Albuquerque Police Department officer Ryan Holets came across the baby’s homeless mother and boyfriend getting high in a field behind a convenience store and was alarmed when he noticed she was pregnant.
“Are you pregnant? Why are you doing that stuff?” Holets is heard asking the woman named Crystal Champ on his lapel camera footage. “You are going to kill your baby.”
An emotional Champ told Holets the addiction was controlling her life and she would probably put her baby up for adoption.
“Do you know who’s going to adopt your baby?” Holets asked. That’s when he offered to adopt her unborn baby.
According to police, Holets did not arrest Champ and the man, but instead helped pay for a place for them to stay.
When the father of four told his wife, Rebecca, about Champ and the baby she was initially shocked. The couple had discussed adopting, just not Champs. After getting over the surprise, Holets’ wife eagerly agreed.
The couple paid for Champ’s counselling and attorney’s fees for the adoption.
The baby girl was born a few weeks later and the Holets named her Hope. The baby is now six-weeks-old and is recovering after being born with an opioid addiction.
“I am so thankful and blessed and humbled that we are allowed to have Hope in our family,” said Holets, who was recently honored at a city event by officials who called his act selfless.
“He’s a hero,” new Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said at a city hall special ceremony.
You can watch more of this remarkable story in the videos below.
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