Police often get calls about shoplifting, but the stories don’t always end like this one. When police officer William Stacy was called to an Alabama Dollar General, he didn’t know his actions would be recorded. Someone was trying to steal eggs.
The suspect, a mom, told Officer Stacy, “I shouldn’t have done that but my babies need food.” He had met the lady before and knew her situation. Instead of arresting her, he bought the eggs for her. “You can’t let kids go hungry. I ran inside bought the eggs for her and walked out and handed her the eggs…She tried to give me all the money she had on her which was $1.25. I told her to keep it. I don’t want it. The way she can repay me is to never do this [shoplift] again.”
He had no idea that another customer was recording the conversation. Robert Tripp said he saw the conversation and was surprised. “He approached it like I’m going to talk to her to see what is going on, assess the situation, see what is going on first besides attacking her. I thought it was pretty cool.”
Officer Stacy said he had to buy the eggs for the lady. “All across the U.S., law enforcement officers do stuff like this on a daily basis. I felt like it was the right thing to do.” All charges have been dropped against the woman.
