A homeless man in South Carolina received some unexpected kindness from a police officer who was called to the restaurant where he was asking for food.

According to Victoria Summer, an employee at Hardee’s restaurant in Horry County, a disgruntled customer called the police on a man who had been asking for donations at the fast food joint for hours. But the responding officer didn’t throw the man out of the building – he bought him a hot meal instead.

“This police officer bought the homeless man food and handled the situation amazingly!” Ms Summer wrote on Facebook, alongside a 20-second clip of the exchange. She told local news station WMBF the officer bought the man two cheeseburgers.

"I was thrilled that the officer had so much compassion so I thought I should take a video," she added.

The video had been seen more than 1,600 times as of Thursday night. Commenters called the officer a “great man” and an “awesome police officer”.

“Officers take note, just because someone is hungry, homeless, and [doesn't] have what you do, doesn’t make them any less human,” one person wrote.

The video received so much attention that the Horry County Police Department left their own comment, identifying the officer as CJ Mullinax – the same officer who went viral last year for a video of him playing football with a group of local kids.