My Clearwater Visit By Officers Is Icing On The Cake For Birthday Boy 02 MyClearwater H He lovesthat flag. time went nationwide and even global. “I have a friend in Australia who saw it online,” Tiffany Barnaky said. “It was amazing.” It was hard to tell who had the most fun that afternoon – Brody or the officers, who had spent the day running from call to call, including a brush fire and a car that had slammed into a business. “It was just as pleasurable for us as it was for him,” Sgt. Rodgers said. “It’s satisfying to be able to do something like that. It’s good to positively impact people’s lives.” Brody’s flag now hangs on his bedroom wall. His mother made him a photo book, and he has a pillow that has the image of the four gathered around him with the flag draped around his neck. Every night when he lays his head on the pillow, memories of that special day are right there with him. “He thinks that they are his real friends now, his buddies,” the mother said. “Anytime he sees a police car or a police officer, he asks, ‘Is that my buddy?’” It’s usually not a good thing when police officers crash a birthday party. Thankfully, this was not one of those birthday parties – the guest of honor was a 4-year-old boy who adores police officers and wants to be one when he grows up. Four Clearwater police officers showed up at Brody Barnaky’s birthday party at Countryside Lanes on Jan. 28 after his mother reached out to the Clearwater Police Department via Facebook to see if a lone officer might be able to make a brief visit. When Sgt. Tom Rodgers heard about the request, he decided to bring his whole squad – or as many who might be available and not responding to the calls of the day. “If I do something, I go overboard,” said Sgt. Rodgers, who has been with the agency for 17 years. “One officer is cool. But if I can bring 10, that would be even better. The whole shock-and-awe thing.” Brody was indeed in awe when the fantastic four – Sgt. Rodgers, Officer Scott Penna, Officer Justin Murray and Officer Tomislav Marjanovic – walked into the bowling alley that day. They gave him a police flag that many officers had signed and took turns carrying him around and showing off their patrol vehicles to him outside. “He loves that flag,” his mother, Tiffany Barnaky, said of Brody. “He wanted to wear it around his neck for a week because that is how they draped it around him at the bowling alley. He thought it was a superhero cape for a while.” Photos and video of Brody and his new officer friends were splashed across local media in the Tampa Bay area, and in no
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