Cop buys child a booster seat, instead of ticketing mom

EMMETT TOWNSHIP, Mich. - A Michigan officer who pulled over a vehicle because a 5-year-old girl wasn't in a booster seat decided a ticket wouldn't cut it.

Instead, Emmett Township public safety officer Ben Hall bought a booster seat for the child.

"A ticket doesn't solve the situation," Hall told WXMI-TV. "What solves it is the child being in a booster seat like she should be. It was the easiest 50 bucks I ever spent."

Here's what happened.

Hall was on patrol Friday in the southern Michigan community when he pulled over the vehicle after someone reported that it had an unsecured child inside. Alexis DeLorenzo and her daughter were riding with a friend, and Hall said DeLorenzo told him that she had fallen on hard times and couldn't afford a child booster seat.

"I was in a spot where I could help her," Hall said.

DeLorenzo said she knew that they could have been ticketed, but instead, Hall told her to meet him at a Wal-Mart, where he bought her the safety seat.

"It changed my life," DeLorenzo said. "I'm never going to forget him. And neither will my daughter."