According to KGTV San Diego, two San Diego policemen who responded to a shoplifting call bought the alleged criminal clothes and shoes instead of putting handcuffs on him.
According to San Diego Police Department Officers Dominic Collin and Christian Nimmons, the employees from a drugstore called to report a homeless person coming in their store, stealing a shirt and refusing to leave.
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The store did not want to press charges against the man but had to get him removed from their property.
The officers, keeping in mind the harsh weather outside and noticing that the man did not even have a shirt on him, decided to buy him a shirt, some socks and a pair of shoes.
Officer Collins said: “We looked at each other, asked how much the sweatshirt was going to cost, and had the same mutual decision of giving him the sweatshirt.”
Both of the officers told 10News that it was the right thing to do at the time. In fact, it was the part of their duty as policemen to be compassionate to the people they come in contact with.
Officer Nimmons said: “I think he was more shocked that cops were doing something for him, we couldn’t leave him like that. That was really it. It’s what we joined to do. To help people.”
The man, whom the officers identified only as Daniels, put the clothes and shoes on and left the store.
Shoplifting is not limited to removing articles off the shelf of a store with malicious intentions. Even the successful execution of taking an item out of a store without paying for it does not suffice the true scope of shoplifting.
It can include tampering with a price tag, removing or trying to remove theft prevention devices from shop articles, putting an item in your pocket or bag while you are in the store, and concealing an item in others after removing it from its packaging.
Shoplifting is considered a petty theft in the majority of the states, and is usually treated as a criminal or sometimes a civil offense.
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