Kids ‘Shop With a Cop’

Christmas came a bit early for twenty kids Saturday thanks to local law enforcement.

“This is the type of event that can reassure them that there is good in people out there,” Sergeant Robert Pickowitz of the La Quinta Police Department said.

For the second annual Shop With a Cop, officers from the La Quinta Police Department took 20 kids shopping for toys at the Super Walmart in La Quinta.
Local educators among other people chose children they felt would really benefit from the event.

Ida Martinez got emotional watching her granddaughter shop.

“She lost her mom about nine months ago, but she’s doing pretty good, her and her brother, but they miss their mom,” Martinez said.

Martinez’s granddaughter Alyiha spent the morning picking out gifts she might not have been able to get without Shop With a Cop.

“It’s helped us a lot. She had a lot on her list, and she got everything she wanted today,” Martinez said.

Walmart donated $75 for each child. As toys piled up, so did prices, but the deputies happily paid the difference out of their own pocket.

“I’m very fortunate to be here with these kids. I enjoy every second of it. It’s what I like to do every year,” Deputy Karen Enos said.

Local police are working to make sure that is a world kids know.

“Law enforcement is out there, and we are looking out for their best interest,” Pickowitz said.

“There is good in the world, there is, you just need to be positive. Not all people are bad,” Martinez said.