So when things got so desperate that she turned to shoplifting to provide diapers, baby wipes and shoes for her children, she says she had to do it for her family—and she was almost immediately caught. "What she did was wrong and against the law, but her heart was in the right place with wanting to help to take care of her children," said Roeland Park Police Officer Mark Engravalle. "It was humiliating that I could be at a point where I would do something like that," said Robinson. After releasing Robinson with a citation for misdemeanor theft, Engravalle went back inside the store with her children and bought diapers, baby wipes and clothes for the children. "And then I got a call the next day saying they wanted to help us further and help us get a place to live."
– A struggling mom in Kansas says her heart dropped when she was caught shoplifting this week—but a police officer may have turned her life around. Sarah Robinson, who cares for six daughters by herself, tried stealing basic necessities for her 2-year-old twin girls at a Walmart in Roeland Park, Kansas, on Monday. "I had lost my house and all of our belongings, and I don't have a job," she tells ABC News. "So I went to Walmart, grabbed clothes, shoes, diapers, wipes, and I just walked out, but they caught me." That's when officer Mark Engravalle showed up and saw some of Robinson's children walking barefoot with dirty feet. "He asked her what the situation was, and she broke down crying," says a Roeland Park public information officer. Engraville saw she was only stealing necessities for the girls, so he released Robinson with a misdemeanor-theft citation and went back inside with her children. There, he bought the items Robinson wanted and let the girls choose their own shoes; it came to $300, Fox4ck reports. "What she did was wrong and against the law, but her heart was in the right place with wanting to help to take care of her children," says Engravalle, who has two children of his own. Now people are calling the police to offer support for Robinson, who is looking for a home and a job. "There isn't enough words in the world to thank [Engravalle] enough," says Robinson, whose husband died three years ago. "Me and my girls are indebted to him forever."