Gift of new bike from Pima County deputies brings young fire victim to tears

When an 11-year-old girl lost most of her belongings in a fire — including the bike she got for Christmas — deputies with the Pima County Sheriff's Department couldn't let that stand.

Sgt. Kevin Kubitskey first spotted the girl wrapped up in an emergency blanket sitting outside the area of the fire, which took firefighters several hours to put out Tuesday morning in Tucson.

"She looked extremely distraught," he told The Arizona Republic. "Her bottom lip was shaking."

Kubitskey said when he asked if the girl was OK, she started to break down.

Yet, she still smiled through the tears, he added.

She told Kubitskey the fire took everything they had, including all of her Christmas presents. The thing that tore her apart most was losing her bike.

"She was so loving, so polite, so humble," Kubitskey said. "Deputies even got teary and had to walk away."

He said everybody agreed on what to do next.

After all of the news reporters left, deputies brought out a new bike that they all chipped in for minutes earlier, Kubitskey said.

"She just crumbled," he said. "She cried and cried and wouldn't even touch it. We finally had to convince her to get on the bike."

Kubitskey said they watched as the girl rode the bike in a circle and then carefully parked it. She then retrieved the emergency blanket and went to each officer, asking him to sign it.

He said this little girl won the hearts of all the deputies.

"The level of her positivity, you could see she was a brilliant young girl," Kubitskey said. "And you could tell, despite her living conditions, despite the deck of cards she was given in life, there was nothing that could keep her down. You don't see that very often."

Kubitskey said his deputies serve the community often, and nobody sees it. Nobody has to. But he is honored to be in such a position.

"My pride for my deputies and what they choose to do because of who they are is just as great every single day as it was to see us change the thought process or life of a little girl who desperately deserves it."

A GoFundMe account has been set up for the family.

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