Christmas came early for some kids in Bainbridge when Public Safety hosted its annual Shop with a Cop event on Thursday. BPS took 19 kids from seven families shopping at Walmart and helped ensure that they will have a very merry Christmas morning with plenty of gifts under the Christmas tree.

“We put this on every year to give back to the community and to make the kids happy and make sure they have a good Christmas,” BPS director Jerry Carter said. “There’s a lot of kids out there that don’t have this going on and some of them don’t have a good Christmas. So, we put this on to make sure they have a good Christmas.”

Each kid was given $250, assigned to a cop to shop with and given license to buy any presents that they wanted, whether for themselves or family members.

Kids loaded up on toys, clothes, bikes and more. Tyson Maise used his money to buy a 32” television to play his Xbox on, Battlefield 1 for the Xbox 1, a wallet and a jacket for his dad.

“I had a great time,” Maise said. “It is amazing. I love this program. I love the kids and Kops whole organization. I love the idea of Kids and Kops. I love everything about it.”

Andrico Mitchell used some of his money to buy clothes, a poster and some art supplies and then used the remainder to buy presents for his mom, sister, grandmother, godmother and brother.

Mitchell’s helper, Captain James Dollar, couldn’t helped but be moved by the selfless acts of the 12 year old.

“I don’t want to be that guy, but it makes we want to cry a little bit. It is kind of awesome,” Dollar said. “My favorite part was the selflessness of the kid that I had.”

After watching Mitchell use his money to buy gifts for his family, Dollar decided that he was going to surprise him with a special gift. He made Mitchell fill up his basket with his $250 worth of gifts and then revealed his surprise- a brand new bike.

Dollar said that he had just went and bought presents for his own kids and when he heard that Mitchell had to share a bike with his brother he decided that he was going to surprise Mitchell with one of his own.

“I am blessed,” Dollar said. “I have three kids that have everything they want and for him to not have the things that he wants. He deserved it. Especially, when he is selfless like that. When he wants his own things for his family and he has all that money for himself and he goes out wants to buy for his family he deserves everything he got.”

Mitchell said, “I thought it was awesome. Since my brother shared his bike with me I thought that I had wanted one. I didn’t know my surprise was a bike. When he said you can get a bike I had got happy.”

After loading up on toys, the kids and the cops went back to BPS and wrapped the presents before having a cookout.