Wayne County Sheriff's deputies give out gift cards for the holidays
(CBS DETROIT) - The Wayne County Sheriff's Office gave out something other than tickets on Wednesday.
Sheriff Raphael Washington and his deputies turned traffic stops into Santa stops on Wednesday by handing out $250 Kroger gift cards to drivers.
"I'm like why is he stopping me?" said Reggie, a driver who was stopped by officers for a gift card.
For Patricia Davis, who was pulled over and received a gift card, this extra money means a lot.
"I'm broke today. This was it right here. I was putting things back over at Whole Foods, but I needed some groceries, but this is a big help to me, and I really appreciate. I'm so shocked," Davis said.
The gift card giveaway is a partnership between the sheriff's office, Kroger and the Leaders Advancing and Helping Communities organization. Washington said this is a fun opportunity to connect with the community.
"We're not all about trying to lock people up and trying to arrest people, but we're trying to bless people at the same time and give them some type of Christmas holiday season that they deserve if they might be less fortunate than others," he said.
Wayne County Sheriff's Cpl. Mike Noe, who decided which cars to pull over on Wednesday, said he looked for families and older cars to pull over. It's his second year participating in the program. He said it feels good to patrol like this.
"Makes you feel good because... they think it's going to be a bad outcome sometimes when you're dealing with the police, but it's nice to give them a good outcome, feel better and you know it makes us feel better to have people not thinking we're just going to give them a ticket every day," said Noe
