A relic of a Beaufort County man’s childhood is taking center stage in events promoting good relations between the public and the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office.

Once left to the elements, an old scaled-down child’s car owned by Lt. Kelly Cox has been refurbished as a miniature version of a BCSO patrol car.

“I’m 33, and we have home video of me playing in it when I was a year old,” Cox said. “Originally, it was a Darrell Waltrip Mountain Dew car; eventually all the graphics faded and my dad painted it cherry red.”

Cox and his siblings appeared with this and other similar cars in local holiday parades, but interest in the car waned within the family.

“I kind of outgrew it and Dad put it at the very edge of the yard under a camper shell,” Cox recalled. “It probably sat like that close to 15 years. One day he got it out, and the frame was still good so he had the body painted black.”

The timing turned out to be perfect since Cox was embarking on a new career path.

“I had just joined the sheriff’s office, and I wanted to get involved in the community and have something to interest the kids,” Cox said. “I called Jonathan Hudson at Hudson Signs; he was already doing all the graphics for the sheriff’s cars and I asked him about scaling the graphics down for the small car.”

An old blue light set that had been broken was recycled, and Cox purchased other items out of his own pocket. Not only did it result in what has become a popular fixture at community events, but refurbishing the little car gave him and his father something fun to do together.

“My dad and I hadn’t worked on a full car project in a while so it was fun, and it’s a good memory of working with him on it,” Cox said.

The command staff at the sheriff’s office recognized a good thing when they saw it and realized the little car’s potential as an outreach tool. So, the new and improved mini patrol car made its public debut Aug. 6, 2013 during National Night Out in Washington.

“As soon as we unloaded it, it was like moths to a flame,” Cox said with a smile. “Everybody wanted to take pictures with it.”

Since then, the car has appeared in local parades, community events, festivals and activities hosted by schools throughout Beaufort County.

“This makes our job that much more special,” Cox said. “We need all the tools we can get to have more interaction with our youth and the community in general. We like doing things like this and we just want to show kids that we are here for them.”

Cox stores the model at his home, and his 2-year-old daughter Audrey loves sitting in the car. She’ll be joined by baby brother Logan, who is expected to arrive in the Cox household in September.