Who Is Brett Wagstaff?

            My VIP for this week is Brett Wagstaff, a police officer with the Lone Peak Police Department in Utah. Wagstaff was on patrol duty when a 911 call came in at 2:12 a.m. on January 28. The call came from Shannon Bird, the nursing mother of a six-week-old baby and five other children and the wife of a husband who was out of town.


            Bird awoke in the middle of the night to nurse her hungry baby and discovered that her milk was gone. She had no way to feed her hungry baby and no one to go get baby formula. She also had five little children asleep in their beds. What was she to do? She called her husband to help her brainstorm. She tried calling neighbors and her brother, but no one answered. She considered leaving the children alone in the house and decided against it. In desperation she called 911.


            A recording of the 911 call tells us about the call. Bird explained her situation of no milk for her screaming newborn, husband out of town, and five sleeping children. The call went out, and Officer Wagstaff and Officer Konner Gabbitas answered it. They immediately purchased a gallon of milk at a convenience store and took it to Bird. There they discovered that the baby was too young to drink regular milk and needed infant formula. They left the gallon of milk and went to buy formula at Walmart. They returned with the formula and would not accept any money for it. Bird was surprised that they went to get the formula. In fact, she wanted them to patrol the street and watch her home while she went to the store.


            Even though a call for baby formula is rare and maybe a one-time event, the police department considers it just another way to serve members of their community. The mother needed some help, and the police officers came to her rescue.