--- title: Watch This Cop Teach a Homeless Girl Hopscotch description: When a California cop came upon a homeless mother and daughter living out of their car, he found an adorable way to cheer the little girl up. canonical: https://time.com/4278990/police-officer-homeless-girl-hopscotch/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-01T13:07:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:31:18.412Z og:title: Watch This Cop Teach a Homeless Girl Hopscotch og:description: "I was trying to break the ice" og:url: https://time.com/4278990/police-officer-homeless-girl-hopscotch/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9f3c506a322ab8b/69888d54cf40a87480c42a02/police-hopscotch-homeless-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Police-Hopscotch-Homeless-Girl og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch This Cop Teach a Homeless Girl Hopscotch twitter:description: "I was trying to break the ice" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9f3c506a322ab8b/69888d54cf40a87480c42a02/police-hopscotch-homeless-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch This Cop Teach a Homeless Girl Hopscotch  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Apr 1, 2016 1:07 PM UTC  Huntington Beach Police Department  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Apr 1, 2016 1:07 PM UTC When a California cop came upon a homeless mother and daughter living out of their car, he found an adorable way to cheer the little girl up. While the other Huntington Beach Police officer on the scene talked to the mother about arranging housing, Officer Zach Pricer was left standing with the 11-year-old girl, [the Washington _Post_ reports](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/01/watch-a-middle-aged-cop-teach-an-11-year-old-homeless-girl-how-to-play-hopscotch/). Pricer[ explained to the Orange County _Register_](http://www.ocregister.com/articles/officer-710366-police-beach.html) why he decided to draw a hopscotch court: “For an 11-year-old girl, to see a police officer towering over her is a scary thing. I was trying to break the ice and get her to feel comfortable with me.” Watch the video above to see Pricer demonstrate his own hopscotch skills until the young girl joins him. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4278990/police-officer-homeless-girl-hopscotch/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4278990/police-officer-homeless-girl-hopscotch/"},"headline":"Watch This Cop Teach a Homeless Girl Hopscotch","datePublished":"2016-04-01T13:07:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:31:18.412Z","description":"\"I was trying to break the ice\"","url":"https://time.com/4278990/police-officer-homeless-girl-hopscotch/","keywords":["Newsfeed","California","U.S."],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9f3c506a322ab8b/69888d54cf40a87480c42a02/police-hopscotch-homeless-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta9f3c506a322ab8b/69888d54cf40a87480c42a02/police-hopscotch-homeless-girl.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Police-Hopscotch-Homeless-Girl","caption":"Police Hopscotch homeless girl","creditText":"Huntington Beach Police Department","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4278990/police-officer-homeless-girl-hopscotch/","name":"Watch This Cop Teach a Homeless Girl Hopscotch"}}]}] ```