American flag was flying upside down, so Missouri cop recruited firefighters to help

An American flag was flying upside down at a Missouri business when a cop took notice, the Independence Police Department posted to Facebook.

Officer David Wehlerman contacted the business that Saturday, Jan. 19, but he was told they wouldn’t be able to fix the flag until the coming Monday, KCTV reported. That’s because the top attachment of the flag had broken off, and the cable was “welded to the top of the pole,” according to the Facebook post.

Waiting two days to fix the flipped-over American flag did not fly for Wehlerman, also a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a “longtime member” of the department’s Color Guard.

Wahlerman said he could not “let it stay like that,” according to FOX News.

With no flag-pole sized ladder of his own, Wehlerman took it upon himself to reach out for help.

“I called dispatch and requested that a ladder truck come out,” he said, according to FOX. Firefighters were “happy to assist with fixing the flag,” police wrote on Facebook.

A photo posted to Facebook shows first responders — and their firetruck — as they worked to fix the flag.

“It’s a symbol of freedom for the world, and I want it to be rightly displayed,” Wahlerman said, according to FOX.

The U.S. flag code says the American flag should never be upside down, “except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property,” according to Cornell Law School.