Given the police brutality issues over the past few years, it's not uncommon when a black person gets approached by a police officer and immediately wonder "Am I Next?"
In one recent instance though, an Illinois police officer dropped a plot twist that no one was expecting.
Fifteen-year-old Vincent Gonzales would sneak into an X-Sport Fitness about three times a week to practice basketball. The gym's operations manager, Justin Pritchett, gave the teen several warnings, telling him that he couldn't keep coming in without paying.
"I felt for the kid. He really did just want to play basketball, but it was a policy enforcement issue more than anything," Pritchett told ABC News. Part of the gym's concern was that Gonzales was a minor in its facility without presence of a parent or guardian, making it potentially liable should something happen to him.
"I said, 'If you sneak in again, I'll have to call the cops,'" Pritchett said.
Gonzales snuck in again, got caught again and Pritchett was true to his word.
He called the cops, hoping that an encounter with law enforcement would "spook" Gonzales into listening to him.
The cop who responded was Skokie officer Mario Valenti.
"Officer Valenti approached him with a stern and authoritative demeanor and said, 'Hey kid, you know you can't be in here, man, grab your stuff,'" Pritchett recounted. Pritchett added that Gonzales "looked so startled, with a face like, 'I've been caught.'"
However, instead of handcuffing him, Valenti asked Gonzales why he kept sneaking into the court.
Gonzales told him he wanted to practice basketball, but that he couldn't afford the gym's membership fees.
Valenti, who said Gonzales "seemed like he was a gentle type of kid," then pulled out his debit card and handed it toward Pritchett while asking, "What will 150 bucks get him?"
Pritchett certainly wasn't expecting that kind of response.
"I was just really stunned honestly and kind of astonished by the gesture that he made," said Pritchett. "He could've just walked him out, driven him home or given him a basketball, but to see [Valenti] just nonchalantly say, 'What can I do?' — it was amazing."
X-Sport matched Valenti's generous offer by providing Gonzales with a two-year all-inclusive membership, and paying off the $718 Valenti's gift didn't cover. All that was needed was for his mother to come in and sign that liability waiver, which she did.
"I said, 'Thank you, that meant a lot,'" Gonzales said when asked how he reacted to the cop's generosity.
Pritchett, too, is happy with how things turned out. "Through this whole thing, we accidentally created a platform for doing good. So why not help make it reach its full potential?"