DETROIT (WXYZ) — When Rochelle Roper was pulled over by a Wayne County Sheriff’s Office deputy on Friday, she didn’t expect to receive a $250 Kroger gift card.
“I feel ecstatic, I feel happy, I feel joy because I seen stuff like this, but I didn’t think it would happen to me,” Roper said.
Roper was one of the many people who were randomly stopped by deputies and surprised with the gift cards
Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington and his team partnered with Kroger and the organization Leaders Advancing and Helping Communities to give out the gift cards.
The event is called “Santa on Patrol.”
“All those lights, I thought I had done something wrong, but I’m wonderful because I need it man,” Robert Smith, who received a gift card, said.
Washington said, “That’s what we’re out here for, just trying to make those people in Wayne County that we stopped have just a little better Christmas than they would’ve had if we hadn’t done this for them.”
While deputies were on Santa patrol, they spotted a mom and her kids walking with a gas can. The family had ran out of gas, so deputies gave her a gift card and a ride back to her car.
Meanwhile, Roper says getting the gift card helped lift her spirits.
“Me and my kids haven’t put up our Christmas tree because I’m feeling down,” Roper added. “I am so grateful. I don’t even got any words for this.”
