A video of a police officer in southern California teaching a homeless 11-year-old girl how to play hopscotch is going viral.

Zach Pricer, of the Huntington Beach Police Department, instructs the youngster in the intricacies of the game in heartwarming footage posted to Facebook.

He talks her through the rules before demonstrating his own skills.

He almost falls over.

The girl then has a go herself, and nails the game -- completing the challenge in double quick time.

The inspiring incident occurred on Wednesday after fellow officer Scott Marsh was called out to reports of a suspicious vehicle in the Graham and Edinger area of the city, the department posted on Facebook.

He discovered the girl was living out of the vehicle with her mom. While Marsh spoke with the mother and contacted the department's Homeless Task Force to arrange housing for the pair, Pricer distracted the girl with the game.

"For an 11-year-old girl , to see a police officer towering over her is a scary thing," Pricer, 38, told the Orange County Register. "I was trying to break the ice and get her to feel comfortable with me."

Marsh said his fellow officer's gesture "didn't completely surprise" him.

"Officers do all sorts of things that are maybe out of the 'police officer character' because we're all just human beings," he told CBS Los Angeles.

The department posted the video to Facebook, with the hashtag #Copslovehopscocth, on Thursday. By early Friday, it had gotten more than 700,000 views.