Story highlights Laurel Police officer pays for the diapers with his own money

The mother will still appear in court on a misdemeanor charge

(CNN) The young mother had purchased groceries, but she didn't have enough money left to buy diapers for her infant son.

That's when security officers at a Laurel, Maryland, supermarket caught her attempting to shoplift two packs of diapers, worth about $15, according to Laurel Police.

But instead of arresting the woman, Officer Bennett Johns bought the diapers for her with his own money, police said.

"Though we often joke that our field trainees are still in diapers, it turns out that rookie Officer Johns was not buying these for himself," Laurel police wrote on Facebook on Saturday, along with a photo of Johns making his purchase.

Johns realized the woman, whose name has not been released, was struggling to provide for her son, according to Laurel Police spokeswoman Audrey Barnes. As someone who grew up with a single mother, he hoped to give the child a better life.

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