STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Two big-hearted police officers saved a little girl's fourth birthday by replacing gifts that were stolen from the Graniteville family's minivan over the weekend.

On Saturday, the Sietz family celebrated little Samantha (Sammi) Sietz's birthday with a party at the Staten Island Children's Museum in Livingston.

"It was a perfect day. Sammi was so excited," said her mother, Kim Briano Sietz.

She said the party helped take her mind off her late husband, Matthew, who died three years ago of a brain aneurysm; he would have turned 46 on Saturday.

With Sammi's birthday presents still wrapped and out of sight in the back of the family's Sienna minivan, the family stopped at Perkin's restaurant in Graniteville on the way home, Sietz said. They were inside the restaurant from 7:30 until about 9 p.m., she said.

When the family returned to their minivan, they found the rear passenger window had been shattered and someone had taken all of Sammi's gifts, leaving behind only the discarded wrapping paper.

The whole family, including Sammi's older siblings, Sarah, 21, Shawn, 18, and Joshua, 14, and Sietz's mother-in-law, Marsha, were horrified; Sammi was heartbroken, Sietz said.

Officers Frank Callaghan and Michael McAvoy of the 121st Precinct responded to the scene and took a report, including the family's address.

"Sammi just looked at them and asked if they could find her presents. They said they'd see what they could do," Sietz said.

Later that night the family returned home after dropping off Sietz's mother-in-law, to find an NYPD patrol car sitting in front of their house. Callaghan and McAvoy got out of the car and popped open the trunk to reveal dozens of new toys, which they helped carry into the house.

" Sammi was so happy. She said, 'Look Momma, they found my presents,'" Sietz said. "They couldn't let a little girl go to bed disappointed on her birthday."

"These officers, it was like they were sent to me to restore my faith, that there are some thoughtful people in the world and they outnumber the bad."

Sietz said she wanted to make sure the two officers were recognized for their good deed.

"They made our day," she said. "They gave my daughter, and all of us, a gift we will never forget."