BREAKING NEWS – Somerset, Massachusetts – A police officer bought groceries for two women accused of shoplifting five days before Christmas.
Officer Matt Lima was dispatched to a local Stop & Shop grocery store, where two women with two small children were accused of not scanning all of their groceries in the self-checkout lane, according to the Somerset Police Department.
“The two children with the women reminded me of my kids, so I had to help them out,” Lima said in a statement.
When the officer arrived at the grocery store, he spoke with one of the women accused of shoplifting and learned that they had fallen on hard times and did not have enough money to purchase an entire Christmas dinner.
“The woman I talked to, she explained she was working, but the mother of the children was not working and had some other family issues going on and that what she had taken was Christmas dinner for the kids,” Lima told local news outlet WJAR. “I hugged them both before leaving the store, and I began to cry as I drove away. The tears weren’t because I felt sorry for them, but it was because I realized after I was a few miles from the store, that while hugging them, they stole my gun and handcuffs. Merry Christmas, crooks!”