Memories of previous Shop With a Cop events

I can still remember the first Shop with a Cop program that took place in Williamsburg in 2004.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

Williamsburg Police Officer Kenny Shaw and Whitley County Sheriff’s Deputy Jerry Noe, unbeknownst to each other, had started raising money for a shop with a cop program for their respective departments. After they found out about each other’s efforts, the two projects were merged into one.

The result was the collection of over $6,300 used to take 64 less fortunate children on $100 shopping sprees at the Williamsburg Walmart that Christmas season.

I can still remember the night that it took place. Nearly every police car from the Williamsburg Police Department and the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department were parked in front of the store along with numerous Corbin Police Department and Kentucky State Police cruisers there as well.

The place was crawling with uniformed police officers. Everywhere you looked there was someone with a badge. You couldn’t miss seeing a police officer if you tried.

Well, almost no one could have missed seeing a police officer apparently.

One of the memorable moments from that shop with a cop, which will forever stick out in my mind, is the genius (sarcasm intended in case you missed it), who decided he was going to try shoplifting while all of this was going on.

He wasn’t trying to shoplift something small like a pair of earrings either. He was trying to shoplift car headlights of all things. Not sure how he planned to get those out of the store unnoticed.

Suffice it to say that he was not successful, and was discretely escorted from the premises, if I remember correctly.

I seriously doubt that any of our judges, who were all in attendance at Shop with a Cop that night by the way, got in any kind of hurry to set a bond for this guy.

Years later we would have another memorable criminal, who decided to make an appearance during shop with a cop, which again had nearly every police officer in Whitley County in attendance.

Apparently this other genius (again sarcasm intended) was high after huffing paint and tried to walk into the Williamsburg Walmart with his face covered in gold spray paint. The police quickly got him out of there before anybody knew what had happened. Jason Caddell told me that story a few months after the fact.

Despite the occasional hiccup, Shop with a Cop remains a great community event each year.

On Thursday night, Williamsburg Police in addition to law enforcement officers from other departments, firefighters, EMTs and several other volunteers gathered to take about 150 less fortunate children shopping as part of the Shop with a Cop program.

Also that night, the Corbin Police Department held its annual Shop with a Cop program to help out unfortunate children.

The Empty Stocking Fund did its Christmas giveaway Saturday in addition to a number of other organizations that tried to make people’s lives better this holiday season, including Toys for Tots and the Lion’s Club Christmas baskets.

If we could just harness the Christmas spirit year round, then it’s untelling what we could accomplish as a society.

Merry Christmas everyone.