Cop Buys Groceries for Mom Caught Shoplifting

The routine part of this shoplifting story out of Miami is that police stopped a woman trying to leave a supermarket with $300 worth of unpaid-for food. The not-so-routine part: Upon hearing that the accused was a mother of three in dire straits, the arresting officer went back in the store and shelled out $100 from her own pocket to buy the woman groceries, reports WSVN. "I made the decision to buy her some groceries because arresting her wasn't going to solve the problem with her children being hungry," says officer Vicki Thomas.

She still charged Jessica Robles with a misdemeanor, but she also educated her about local food banks and other sources of help. "She asked, 'Do you even have food at the house?' And I looked at her in her face, and I told her, 'Not at all,'" recalls Robles. For the record, the Miami-Dade department has no problem with Thomas' actions. "Police officers do have discretion, and what Thomas did was completely in bounds," a spokesperson tells AOL. (More uplifting news stories.)