One mother's heartbreaking social media post about her 5-year-old son having no friends attend his birthday caught the attention of personnel from the Los Angeles County sheriff's and fire departments.
Latrice Jones says she planned a party over the weekend for her son Gregory and invited his few friends.
"He’s on the autism spectrum, so sometimes it's hard for him to interact with other kids."
Unfortunately all of his friends declined and the only people expected to show were his grandparents, aunt and uncle and two cousins.
Upset over the lack of guests, Jones took to Facebook and posted to the group Santa Clarita Mommies.
“Do you know how hard it was for me to tell him yesterday that no one he invited is coming?
I just hope that he has as much fun as possible today and just remembers how much fun he had and not that no one showed up.”
Within hours of writing the post, Jones received messages from strangers who wanted to attend Gregory's party including new mom Los Angeles County Deputy Joane Warren.
"I was like, 'We can help him out'. He seems like a really, really cool kid. So, I just wanted him to have a very happy birthday."
Warren asked if she could stop by with a few friends and brought along dozens of people, including deputies from the Santa Clarita Sheriff's Station in patrol cars and firefighters from the LA County Fire Department in a fire truck.
Jones was elated over the surprise and said Gregory was happy too.
"It’s definitely a memory that we’re going to have for the rest of our lives."