A portion of the exchange between fifth-grader Lena Draper and Marion Police Department Lt. B.J. Gruber.Marion Police Department Facebook page
MARION, Ohio — Solving this case was elementary for the city’s police department.
Fifth-grader Lena Draper, 10, needed some help with her math homework and left a message on the Marion Police Department’s Facebook page last Friday after she was stumped by some questions involving the use of parentheses.
According to 10tv.com, the officer monitoring the page, Lt. B.J. Gruber, saw the message and decided to give it the ol’ college try, even it was a fifth-grade assignment.
“OK, what?” Gruber responded on Facebook.
“Well I don’t understand (8+29)x15,” Lena said.
“Do the numbers in the parenthesis first so in essence it would be 37 x 15,” Gruber said.
That worked out, so Lena posted a second problem, “(90 + 27) + (29 + 15) x 2.”
According to ABC News, Gruber actually made a mistake in his response, telling Lena to add the both equations in parentheses first, then multiply it by two. The numbers in the second parentheses should be added and multiplied by 2, then the result is added to the numbers in the first parentheses.
Gruber acknowledged his error on the department’s Facebook page, saying he hopes “it’s the thought that counts.” He added that history was his favorite subject.
Lena’s mother, Molly Draper, was appreciative of the department trying to help her daughter.
“I didn’t believe her and asked for a screen shot. I thought it was pretty funny. And I love that they went ahead with it,” Draper tells ABC News.
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