Tanner Brownlee was just 15-years old when his father, Weld County Deputy Sam Brownlee, was killed in the line of duty during a police chase back in 2010.
Ever since, he and his brother Chase have been trying to get their hands on items that belonged to their dad, and this year, they learned that one of the last tangible things he was connected to, a 147,000-mile Dodge Charger squad car, was heading to a police auction.
Tanner started a GoFundMe page and managed to raise a little over $3,000, which he planned to use along with the $12,000 that his father had left him to buy the car.
“It’d mean a lot to me and my brother. We’ve been through a lot,” Tanner told 7NEWS Denver that learned about his story and followed him to the auction. “If we do get it tonight, I kind of hope my mom will let me drive it around tonight. I think if it goes past the limit we have, I just have to hope that someone has it in their heart to win the car and give it to me and my brother. We don’t really have a backup plan.”
The auction, the proceeds of which go to C.O.P.S. (Concerns of Police Survivors), a group that helps survivors of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty, quickly surpassed Tanner’s funds and was eventually sold for $60,000, but little did he know that the winner, local rancher Steve Wells, was aware of the 20-year old’s story.
Wells suddenly handed the keys to a teary Tanner: “Here’s your car”.
“You had no idea that that guy in the back was bidding and was going to hand you the keys?” asked 7NEWS reporter Marshall Zelinger. “Nope. I shook his hand and I didn’t know,” said Tanner. “It means so much to me.”
Tanner told the sheriff that he would donate the money from his GoFundMe account to C.O.P.S. We bet his father would be proud.