Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Out of His Pocket, II

It has happened again, and like the first time, this post is aimed at the cop-haters out there.

Recently we blogged about an officer who, instead of writing a ticket for a child not secured in a car seat, bought the young mother a car seat with his own funds.

Today, from our friends at POLICE magazine we learned of a mother who was caught shoplifting eggs at a Dollar General store in Alabama, this past Saturday.  But instead of arresting her, the responding officer bought the eggs for her.  Out of his pocket.

The woman had her young children in the car.  She told Officer William Stacy that she was only stealing because she was trying to feed her children.  He was confident that she was telling the truth, and so he spoke with Dollar General, which agreed not to prosecute.  Officer Stacy then said to the woman, “If I give you these eggs, will you promise that you won't shoplift anymore?”

He bought the eggs and gave them to her.  And the woman, instead of being saddled with an arrest and potentially resentful of the police, asked if she could give Officer Stacy a hug.

Postscript: We are well aware of the irony in the juxtaposition of our post just below this one, which speaks of better economic times, with this post concerning a young mother who felt the need to resort to stealing to feed her family.  Things may indeed be getting better – we sincerely hope so – but things are not yet as good as they could be.