The women, who had two small children with them, stopped as they left the store, police said.
Lima took a woman aside so they could talk about what happened without listening to the children. The store staff kept the children in custody so that they would not know what was going on.
Lima told WJR, “The woman I spoke to explained that she works, but the children’s mother was not working and she had some other family issues going on and what she took was a Christmas dinner for the children.”
He looked at the receipt to see what the women had planned to buy and saw that they were just getting food.
“Obviously, this was a family need and I can’t think of deciding to go to the stop and shop and pay for what I can only give – or am I going to go there and try to get things for Christmas dinner kids?” Lima told WJAR.
Police issued a notice not to prosecute him, but did not lay charges, police said.
“They were very grateful. They were kind of shocked. I’m sure a lot of people in this situation would be thinking that there would be a different outcome, and maybe they would be arrested or go to court.” “
Lima bought a કાર્ડ 250 gift card for women so they could buy their groceries at a separate store.
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