Police don't solve crime but do come through for 10-year-old girl and her family

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — She rode her bicycle to the Walgreens down the street from her family's apartment in the city's South Side on Saturday afternoon. Ten-year-old Mayra Feliz pulled her pink Shogun Shockwave bicycle inside and tucked it between the doors, thinking it would be safe while she shopped with her mother.

Then, she saw an older boy grab her bicycle. He wheeled it out of the store, and Mayra ran after him, shouting: "That's my bike!"

The teen ignored her and pedaled off.

Mayra chased after him. She flagged down a friend, whose mother drove them around the neighborhood, trying to find where the teen had taken her bicycle. But he was gone.

Mayra went back to the store and asked the clerks to check the surveillance video to see if it showed the thief. And then Mayra and her mother went home, where they called police.

After the call came in, Officer Jared Stanzione walked up to the family's third-floor apartment and into the home where a Christmas tree was set up. Providence police get hundreds of calls a day, for all kinds of problems. These are the types of calls that bother Stanzione, an eight-year police veteran. "I can't stand it when people steal from kids," he said.

Mayra's stepfather Anyelo Camerna had given her the bicycle. Both he and Mayra's mother, who is also named Mayra Feliz, are deaf. Their daughter translates for them, in sign language and Spanish. The girl had never spoken to the police before. She was doing her best to be strong and helpful, but Stanzione was touched by her tears.

"This just hit you a little bit," he said later. "It's this close to Christmas."

Officer John Benros arrived next and saw the looks on their faces. The girl was sobbing, and now Stanzione looked like he was going to cry. "I could tell this was more than a little girl's stolen bicycle," Benros said.

And without a word, "we knew what we were going to do," Benros said.

Officers Michael Barrera, Eduardo Curi and Richard Mendez joined the search. But the police and Mayra knew what kids in the city learn the hard way: When your bicycle is stolen, you may have 20 minutes to find it, before it ends up in someone's basement or garage, spray-painted a different color, and in the hands of a new owner.

Stanzione called his wife. "She said, 'I hope you're going to buy her a bike,'" he recalled. Benros was already on his way to a local bicycle vendor.

The officers in the search pooled their cash together. An hour later, the officers pulled up to the house again. They pulled out a purple Schwinn Deelite, with big white tires, and presented it to Mayra.

"She broke down," Stanzione said. "She made us cry," Benros added.

Mayra said she couldn't help it. "It was amazing. I was crying, I was so happy."

Darkness was growing late Tuesday afternoon, as the officers and the child stood together for a photograph outside her family's home on Reynolds Avenue. Mayra told the police a joke to make them smile: "Why do bananas come in bunches? Because they stick together."

Their radios started crackling as the officers said their good-byes and promised to return with a bike lock and chain. "Ok, honey, we'll stop by and see you again," Stanzione said, as Mayra held onto him.

The officers were thinking about Mayra's little sister Asley. They'd seen how the 3-year-old girl watched her sister with the new bike.

It was almost Christmas. The officers told the family they'd be back.

amilkovi@providencejournal.com

(401) 277-7213

On Twitter: @AmandaMilkovits