Java failed to read image from folder

Question

I am trying to read an image from the resource folder.
This is the folders hereditary

/src

-/classes
--Sprite.java
--Main.java
--/chars
---George.java

-/res
--george.png

Sprite.java (for reading sprite sheets)

public class Sprite {

    private static BufferedImage spriteSheet;
    private static final int TILE_SIZE = 32;

    public static BufferedImage loadSprite(URL path) {

        Image sprite = null;
        sprite = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(path);

        return ((ToolkitImage)sprite).getBufferedImage();
    }

    public static BufferedImage getSprite(URL path, int xGrid, int yGrid) {


        spriteSheet = loadSprite(path);

        return spriteSheet.getSubimage(xGrid * TILE_SIZE, yGrid * TILE_SIZE, TILE_SIZE, TILE_SIZE);
    }

}

George.java

public class George {

    public George() {
        URL path = getClass().getResource("/res/george.png");
        BufferedImage Stand = Sprite.getSprite(path, 2, 1);
    }
}

I got the error Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException at return spriteSheet.getSubimage(xGrid * TILE_SIZE, yGrid * TILE_SIZE, TILE_SIZE, TILE_SIZE); and BufferedImage Stand = Sprite.getSprite(path, 2, 1);

I can't seem to get this working, please help me here.