A 14-year-old boy is recovering after robbers punched him unconscious, as he sold candles for charity.

Nearby, an off-duty police officer saw it all and came to his defense.

The soft-spoken 14-year-old was working at his summer job: selling candles for a kids' cancer charity.

"He's a very good kid," said his mother.

Sometimes he spends his modest earnings on his mother.

"Once and a while, I take her out, you know," he said.

Yesterday afternoon he tried to sell a candle to a man at a gas station who grabbed his money.

He's afraid of retaliation - so we'll call him George.

"He was trying to take $8," he said.

In exchange for those $8 - the man knocked George out.

"He's a kid. He hit him like a man," his mother said.

A Dallas police officer saw the incident from the restaurant next door.

He ran over and arrested the robber.

"He came running. He stuck his gun out. He pointed it at the guy and guy, like surrendered," said the boy.

Two friends in a black truck drove away.

George spent the rest of the day in hospital but not before the officer got George's $8 from the robber and gave them back to him.

E-mail dschechter@wfaa.com.