Mother of soldier jumps for joy after son's surprise homecoming

A mother of a soldier in Phoenix, Arizona, was not expecting to see her son for another month. But as she was walking around at her job, she spotted a familiar face.

Larry Sterns serves in the 101st Airborne Division of the Army at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. He wrote on YouTube that he told his mom, Denise, that he would have time off at the end of July, but that was not the case. He actually came home a month earlier.

Sterns and his family decided to surprise his mom at her job as a custodian at Phoenix's Central Station. Larry's grandfather, Terry, and his uncle, Hugh, helped plan and record the surprise. A police officer joined in by sending Denise in Larry's direction under the pretense that a mess needed cleaning up.

When Denise caught sight of her son, her reaction was priceless. She walked right by him, did a double-take, and then, when she realized it was really him, she rushed into his arms and wrapped her whole body around him in a hug.

"It was a very emotional moment for all of us, even the police officer got choked up," Hugh Sterns told ABC via email.

Larry was only home for a few days, but he wrote that it was "probably my best gift to her yet."