The cop found the boy tied up, bruised and malnourished. Now, he’s adopted him.

When Jody Thompson first met his son, it was in some of the worst conditions imaginable, he says.

Thompson, a five-year veteran of the Poteau Police Department in Oklahoma, had responded in 2015 to a call of child abuse and found eight-year-old John, bound at his hands and feet, bruised from head to toe, malnourished, having recently been submerged in a trash can filled with cold water, according to KSFM. He weighed just 61 pounds.

“It was the worst thing I've ever seen,” Thompson told CBS News.

Right away, Thompson told the two stations, he knew he needed to take care of the boy.

“When I'd seen him in that house shivering and his hands tied — just soaking wet and confused — I knew at that moment the only time I would be satisfied and sure that he was safe is if he was with me,” Thompson told CBS News.

So Thompson stayed with the boy as he first went to investigators to detail the abuse he suffered at the hands of his biological parents, then traveled with him to the hospital, according to CBS News.

The next day, Thompson began the process to become a foster parent.

“At the time, I had a 15-year-old son and an 8-year-old son. When I brought John home I didn't tell them or my wife,” Thompson told CBS News. “Everyone knew... they trusted I was doing the right thing before they even knew what happened and heard the story.”

A few days later, Thompson’s wife found out she was pregnant with her third biological child, according to KSFM.

“And the rest is kind of history,” Thompson tolf KSFM.

Now, John, 10, is healthy, happy and a straight-A student at school, his father says. He’s taken on his dad’s last name as well.

“He's the reason why I'm here right now,” John Thompson told KSFM.

Thompson has also taken in John’s baby sister, who was born to his biological mother while she was in jail. John’s biological parents are still in prison and awaiting trial, per CBS News.

“All of us can sit back and say we would do the same in that situation, but to come through with it and to do that, that's a measure of a man — and a very good police officer,” Poteau Police Chief Stephen Fruen told KSFM.

According to the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, there were more than 15,000 substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect in the state in 2016, nearly three-quarters of which was perpetrated by a mother or father.

This story was originally published July 1, 2017 at 3:35 PM with the headline "The cop found the boy tied up, bruised and malnourished. Now, he’s adopted him.."