Good cop gives new boots to barefoot homeless man

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A Good Samaritan cop gives a homeless man a pair of winter boots in freezing New York. Credit: Jennifer Foster/NYPD

New York City cop Larry DePrimo has become a web hero after a picture of him giving a shoeless homeless man a pair of warm winter boots went viral.

Tourist Jennifer Foster photographed the incident without the officer's knowledge and sent the image to his NYPD employers to highlight his goodwill.

The force shared the photo on its Facebook page, where it has attracted over 370,000 "likes".

Foster, who was on holiday from Arizona, wrote: “Right when I was about to approach [the homeless man], one of your officers came up behind him. The officer said, ‘I have these size 12 boots for you, they are all-weather. Let’s put them on and take care of you'."

She continued: "The officer squatted down on the ground and proceeded to put socks and the new boots on this man. The officer expected NOTHING in return and did not know I was watching."

" I didn't think anything of it," Officer DePrimo said.