Officer Mark Engravalle responded to a shoplifting call at the Walmart in Roeland Park, Kansas. When he got there, those shoplifters were waiting for him. It was a mother and her six young children. Three of her girls had no shoes and their feet were covered in dirt.
The mother, Sarah Robinson, told the officer that her husband had died in an accidental drowning back in 2011, and the family has since been homeless, mostly living out of their car.
Mark looked over the items they were shoplifting. It was $300 worth of diapers, baby wipes and children’s shoes. He had young kids of his own, and it tugged at his heartstrings. He just knew he had to help.
Says Mark: “Walmart might see her as a criminal, but I just saw her as a mom going through a really difficult time.”
So Mark bought the wipes, the diapers and the shoes and paid for them out of his own pocket. Mark did give Sarah a ticket for the shoplifting, and Sarah was extremely grateful for that, because he could have arrested her and had her children taken away from her.
Says Mark after buying the items for her: “We were both in tears, it was more of a mutual understanding, we didn’t really say anything. Then, Sarah said thank you. The look on her children’s faces with the shoes and everything, that’s all that had to be said.”
