PORTSMOUTH -- Michael Smith could see little more than flashing blue lights through the living room window, as he stumbled to answer the midnight knock on his door. Woken from a deep sleep, and without his glasses, he saw what appeared to be a small army of police officers on his doorstep, and a street full of cruisers.

His mind raced back to a similar scene two nights earlier, when the same faces showed up at his Portsmouth home. Only then, Smith had been wide-awake, fueled by anger and worry.

Sometime between 3 and 6 am- Monday, the house Smith shares with his girlfriend and her three children was burglarized. They came home from their job delivering morning papers to find the Christmas tree, still lit and decked with silver tinsel, thrown across the living room floor- Every gift under the tree, save a portable basketball hoop, was gone.

"It was awful, I mean they took everything they could carry and it looked like they were going to try to come back for the rest," said Javona Harris, Smith's 25-year-old girlfriend.

She and Smith had saved a bit of each paycheck for a month to buy gifts for the children, who are 1, 6 and 7 years old, and who were staying with their grandmother when the burglary happened.

“I wouldn’t have cared if they had taken anything else, but not my kids’ Christmas,” Harris said. “I had no idea how we could explain that there would be no Christmas this year."

She and Smith scrambled Monday and Tuesday, scraping up whatever cash they could find. "We were trying, but we could really only get a few things," said Smith, 33.
"Finally, we just told them that this year, Christmas might not be so great."

Then came the midnight knock Tuesday, As Smith stood at the door, dazed, police officers filed in one at a time and piled presents under the Christmas tree that he and Harris had managed to salvage.

Carols blared from the Portsmouth Police Department’s “Crime Busters" van parked outside. The officers, 13 in all, kept coming until packages, labeled with each child's name, covered nearly every corner of the living room.

As her parents stood amazed, 1-year-old Jalaysha Harris came tearing down the hall, Minnie Mouse in tow.

Unable to sleep in all the excitement, she joined her brothers, 7-year-old Jametrius Harris, and Demetrius Vaughan Jr., who turned 6 Wednesday. The officers working the midnight shift the night of the burglary raised just over $200 to ensure Christmas for the children.

"I overheard the parents in the kitchen that night wondering what they would tell the kids on Christmas morning, that was all they were worried about,” said Officer George Conklin, who along with Sgt. Larry Jacobs spearheaded the campaign.

By the end of the day, dozens of officers had donated gifts, money and their time to shop for presents. The Portsmouth chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police donated several toys, including an Xbox to replace the one Harris bought earlier this month. A manager at Wal-Mart agreed to give them a 50 percent discount.

This was the second act of generosity from the Portsmouth Police Department this week.

An hour-and-a-half before Smith got his surprise, another group of Portsmouth police officers, led by Lt. Tammy Early, dropped off $900 in gifts to a family whose home recently caught fire. Theresa Waters shares a small hotel room with five of her children, trying to get back on her feet after he blaze.

When Early learned Tuesday morning that the Waters family may not have Christmas, she first dipped into her own pockets to buy gifts for the children. Within hours, her co-workers, the local Fraternal Order of Police and the Portsmouth Fire Department, followed suit.

At the Harris home, well into the early morning hours of Christmas Eve, Demetris, Jametrius and Jalaycha were still playing with the one present they were each allowed to open on Christmas Eve, collector's edition replicas of Portsmouth Police cars.

Just as the officers were leaving, Demetris had a question for Smith: "But I thought we weren't having Christmas this year? "

Smith replied, "I know, but it looks like Santa delivered it, V.I.P"