MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Each call is unique for Manatee County Deputies Marc Newman and Jeremy Bass.
"You just never know what you are going to come across,” said Bass.
Recently, they were called by a man who purchased a car from a Texas auction. When the car arrived in Bradenton, the man found a purse in the trunk. Then he called authorities.
The deputies responded and took the purse. Inside the purse deputies found a memorial — a baby picture, a candle, hospital bands and a date of death form. Then, a container which held the cremated remains of a baby.
"We knew it was very important to somebody, we knew the mother wanted it back,” said Bass.
The deputies went to work. They contacted the funeral home that handled the cremation in hopes of finding the parents.
When they found the mother's name, they enlisted the help of Sandra Dickerman who scoured through social media trying to locate her.
After two days of searching, Dickerman found a work phone number for the mother and called her. She was elated.
"She had totaled her vehicle and she didn’t think she could go back to her vehicle to get her belongings,” said Administrative Assistant Sandra Dickerman.
After an accident in June of 2018, the mother's vehicle was totaled and she thought she couldn't go back to get her belongings out of the car.
The deputies made arrangements with the mother to reunite her with the remains of her baby.
“You deal with a lot of negative stuff throughout the day and this is something where you feel like you did good,” said Bass.
For their extraordinary efforts, the two deputies were made Deputies of the Month, and Dickerman was named Employee of the Month.
