Feb. 24, 2023 An Ann Arbor police officer received some unexpected assistance taking care of a tree downed by an ice storm when University of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh pulled up in his van.
By Angelique S. Chengelis Source The Detroit News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
ANN ARBOR, MI— Ann Arbor police officer Howard Cooper was an hour into his 12-hour shift and dealing with a downed tree during Wednesday night’s ice storm when he got an unexpected assist from Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.
Cooper was at Devonshire and Londonderry roads trying to remove a large tree blocking the road at around 8 p.m. when Harbaugh pulled up in a van.
“I was waving off the van like, ‘Hey, you’ve got to turn around, the tree is blocking the road,’ and then he got out and I was like, ‘That’s Jim Harbaugh,'” Cooper said in an interview with The Detroit News on Thursday. “I was like, ‘No way.’ And the first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Hey, let’s try to move this.’ It was just kind of cool that he just hopped out. I would have never thought Jim Harbaugh, of all people, would hop out to help out.”
The Ann Arbor Police Department on Thursday posted to on its Twitter account Cooper’s bodycam video showing the two men working to move the tree to clear a lane for traffic, which took about 10 minutes. Cooper had given Harbaugh some work gloves and the two went to work as ice fell.
Cooper, who was working a 12-hour shift that began at 7 p.m., said all of the officers were receiving call after call about downed trees. Upon arrival, he made certain there were no downed wires.
“It was really tough because we’re spread thin,” Cooper said. “We’re each responding to calls, so to have someone be willing to hop out and say, ‘Hey, let’s to do this together,’ that was awesome.”
Moving the tree would have been challenging for one person.
“It was heavy, that’s for sure,” Cooper said, laughing. “I think Harbaugh’s got his in-season football strength going.”
After they moved the tree, Harbaugh took off the work gloves to return.
“We started walking back to our vehicles, he took off the work gloves, he said, ‘What was your name?,'” Cooper said “I said, ‘Cooper’ and he said, ‘Well I’m Jim.’ Like everybody in Ann Arbor doesn’t know how Jim Harbaugh. It was a super humble thing. It was really cool.”
Toward the end of the bodycam video, Cooper is heard telling Harbaugh, “You’re a good man.”
“Hey, feel free to spread the word on that,” Harbaugh said in response. “Don’t feel like you’ve got to keep that to yourself.”
This isn’t the first time Harbaugh has offered an assist. In March 2015, Harbaugh and a member of the football staff were driving to the airport when they saw two women who had been in a car accident on I-94. They provided first aid for the 53-year-old and 73-year-old women and their coats while waiting for police assistance.