NWS NYPD ROSE

Great Kills resident Kera Beale, mom of three, was one of the motorists who was "pulled over"by an NYPD officer on Sunday afternoon, May 8, not for a ticket but to receive a long-stemmed rose in celebration of Mother's Day. (Photo courtesy of Maura Beale)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- At about noon on Sunday, Kathy Sinclair was driving to her sister-in-law's house in Great Kills for Laura's annual Mother's Day family brunch.

Kathy -- a Richmond Town resident and mom of two teenagers, Kyle, 16, and Kaitlyn, 13-- was en route to the party with her mother-in-law in the front seat, and her husband sitting in the back.

She was stopped on the way by an NYPD car, its lights flashing, at the intersection of Giffords Lane and Katan Avenue.

The officer "pulled me over, stopping behind me," Sinclair told SILive.com in a phone interview on Sunday.

"I'm getting my license out, thinking I'm getting a ticket -- I was nervous," she said.

When the female NYPD officer approached Sinclair's driver's-side front window, Sinclair asked:

"Did I do something wrong?"

The officer's replied:

"Are you a mom?"

And Kathy answered yes.

"So she hands me a long-stemmed red rose," Kathy told us.

"It was such a positive thing -- it made my day -- it was the highlight," she enthused.

About 15 minutes later, Kathy's sister -- Kera Beale, a mom of three -- was pulled over on Katan Avenue by the same officer, lights flashing in the patrol car.

"I was going down Gifford's Lane to pick up my niece, Kaitlyn," she said.

The officer driving the NYPD car asked her if she was a mom.

When Kera replied in the affirmative, the officer handed her a red rose.

"She also gave me a beautiful blessing," Kera said.

"I thanked her for her service and told her that she had just pulled over my sister about 15 minutes ago!"

MODESTY

By the time this reporter arrived at the scene on Sunday afternoon, the distribution of the red roses was over.

An NYPD patrol car was parked on Giffords Lane, with a female officer in the driver's seat, talking on a phone.

When the officer finished her conversation, a reporter asked if she was the one who had been distributing the red roses.

Her hand came up, waving off any photographs or mention of her name.

"I'm not doing this for recognition," the officer shouted across the street to a reporter.

"I just love people."

But she did tell us that she handed out two dozen long-stemmed red roses to moms on Sunday afternoon.

This officer also said that she wants folks to know that uniformed NYPD personally care about community residents on their patrolled turf.