We are proud and delighted to announce that Roaming Officer Ayrton Mead, Tesco Chester-le-Street, has been awarded an “Outstanding Officer” accolade in respect of an incident that took place on June 13. In his own words, this is what transpired:
“I arrived at approximately 22.45 and parked my van at the front of the store. When I got out of the van to put my boots on, I saw there was someone standing on the railway bridge directly above the store carpark. I put my boots back into my van and made my way towards the end of the carpark, directly below the bridge in question. I also contacted the police via 999 but was placed on hold so directed a member of the public who was already on the phone to keep trying.
On my way down, I met another male who identified himself as a mental health nurse, and shouted to another male in the carpark, who was witnessing everything that was happening, to go and tell the Store Manager I was leaving the store to deal with this.
The unknown nurse and I began to build a rapport with the female, a 16 year old girl in distress having being kicked out of her house by her mum earlier that day. She was incredibly scared and was in a considerably distraught state.
The nurse and I successfully convinced the female to walk off the bridge, down the railway line. I managed to help the nurse climb over one of the tall fences behind the housing estate, but he was unable to lift the female back over to me. We decided that, as the police were on their way to the railway station, we would walk her along the fence line towards Chester-le-Street station. The police were waiting on site when we arrived, and we both made our way back to the store.
The nurse and I shook hands and went our separate ways.”
Great work Ayrton – you should be extremely proud!
