Wendy's Fired Worker with Down Syndrome Will Be Police Officer for a Day

Dennis Peek, the recently-fired Wendy's employee with Down syndrome, isn't fully retiring yet -- he's about to live out one of his lifelong dreams by becoming a police officer.

This is all kinds o' perfect ... turns out Dennis is a huge fan of "The Andy Griffith Show" -- his sister Cona Young Turner tells us her brother especially loves Barney Fife, the hilarious deputy played by Don Knotts.

She says Dennis knows a few of the officers in the nearby town of Mount Holly, NC, and after they saw what happened to him at Wendy's ... the police department decided to put him on the force for a day.

We're told Dennis will be sworn in on Thursday ... they'll give him a uniform and a hat that he gets to keep once his shift is over. He's gonna be busy, riding in a police car, a police boat and he'll check in on a few businesses in the department's golf cart.

ICYMI, Dennis's story went viral when he got fired from his job at the fast food chain last week after devoting 20 years to the company. Cona claimed managers told her Dennis couldn't do his job like a "normal" person.

As we reported, Dennis doesn't know he was terminated ... his family opted to tell him he's simply retiring.