BAY MINETTE, Alabama — There are some dirty cops in Bay Minette, and for at least one resident, that is a good thing.

Sgt. Willie Walker, who works with the Baldwin County Department of Corrections, across the street from the Bay Minette Police Department, was on his way home on Aug. 19 when he saw several patrol cars in his neighbor’s yard.

“She is elderly and doesn’t get around very well, so my first thought was ‘Oh, no, something has happened to her,’” said Walker.

Walker said he went ahead with his plans to take his lawn mower to the shop, but as he was backing out of the driveway with the trailered mower in tow, he saw something that made him pause. So he promptly took out his phone and began filming.

“They didn’t know I was there,” he said, “so they just kept doing what they were doing and I just kept filming.”

Days later, Bay Minette Police Chief Clarence Crook said he was approached by one of his officers about a video concerning “dirty cops” in Bay Minette.

“I didn’t know what to think,” Crook said.

As he watched the video, he saw Walker going on in a seeming rant about how there were “dirty cops” in Bay Minette.

“I just kept watching, waiting to find out what in the world they could have done,” Crook said. “It just seemed like he was going on forever without saying why.”

And then, about halfway through the video, you can see a man in uniform emerging from between the bushes in the neighbor’s yard, pushing a lawnmower.

Turns out that Bay Minette Police Officer Jamie McClung was patrolling the neighborhood. He was about to go on his lunch break, when he observed the elderly woman, struggling to do her own yardwork.

He contacted Sgt. Rene Peebles, who offered to help and she, along with officers Marcus Sledge and Jessie Baggett, joined McClung and spent their lunch break helping the neighbor with her yard.

“We have seen so many things in the media lately portraying officers going around shooting people,” Walker said. “I just wanted to show something that illustrates that despite the perception that a lot of people have, there are plenty of good officers out there that simply want to help people in their community.”

He never expected the video to go viral, however. To date, it has been viewed more than 600,000 times.

“And it’s still growing,” Walker said. “It’s gotten bigger than I ever expected.”

While Crook said he was relieved that the “dirty officers” were actually doing good in the community, he was not surprised.

“Our officers are always doing good things in the community,” said Crook who has served in the department for going on 32 years, four as police chief. The department now has a total of 22 officers with hopes to add more.

As for the neighbor, Crook said he doesn’t know her name. When asked if she would mind being identified, Williams admitted that he didn’t know her name, either.

“I don’t know if the officers even knew,” he said, “but that certainly didn’t keep them from helping her.”

All of the officers involved, Crook said, just happened to have the weekend off and were not available for comment on Friday.