PEKIN – Most people are unhappy when police crash their party, but in this case it made for a pretty cool birthday.

All Braden Garnett wanted for his 11th birthday was to go paintbaillin’ with a few friends. But Braden, who is on the autism spectrum, does not have a lot of friends in his circle.

“Usually only two kids shows up at his parties,” said Carrie Garnett, Braden’s mom. “And I just kind of felt bad for him.”

So, mama arranged a special surprise by dialing 9-1-1. She thought maybe the department could send one or two off-duty cops to the party. But she and Braden were in for a treat.

“My mom said there would be surprises,” said Braden. “But I didn’t know it was them.”

Sunday, dozens of Pekin police officers and firefighters crashed the boy’s party at a local paintball field.

“Even the mayor of Pekin was there,” said Braden with a smile.

Det. Mike Eeten said the officers were excited after hearing of the party and immediately raised money to buy Braden a gift.

“They went and bought him a police station Lego set,” said Eeten.

Braden stayed up all night assembling his new toy. But by far his favorite part of the day was “shooting paintballs at the cops.”

“Breathless. He kept saying he was breathless,” said Carrie.

“They were kinda generous because they came to my party, and I didn’t have a lot of people showing up.”

Monday, Braden returned the favor by delivering sweets to the public servants so sweet to him.

“I figured they did something special for me, and I wanted to do something special for them,” said the 11-year-old.

This birthday, it is safe to say Braden got his wish and even some new friends.

“We’ll never be able to top this birthday,” said Carrie Garnett.

“Nope,” said a happy Braden.