Shannon Loveless fell on hard times and had no choice but to live in her van with her three kids. She had been camping out behind the Walmart off Elk Grove Florin Road. That’s where two Sacramento county cops spotted her making lunch for her kids.
Officer Johnny and his partner, Tim, drove up to the open field, took off their seatbelts, and took a look in the rear-view mirror. What they saw were a bunch of red plastic cups all over the area. Tim laughed and said, “Students. Let’s check it out.”
They discovered a fire pit from the previous night. The chairs were stacked with stones. Plastic bottles and tin cans were tucked behind the chairs too. They started walking to their car. Then, they heard something behind the bushes.
They’d hide in the woods behind the store and make a camp for the night. The family would beg for food and look for leftovers wherever they could and would take turns sleeping on the hard ground and inside the family van.
“There was no light at the end of the tunnel,” Shannon told CBS 13. Her life was an endless story of pain and suffering.
Shannon assumed she was about to be in trouble and was told to leave the premises since she had never been treated kindly by officers in these situations before.
“It was a shock because we didn’t know if we were going to get into trouble,” Shannon told CBS 13.
But the deputies quickly noticed the kids were dirty and hungry, and it shook them to the core.
“I kinda choked up a little bit just to see the kids hungry and dirty,” one of the deputies said.
The deputies didn’t hesitate to contact social services and while the Loveless family was waiting for permanent accommodation they were put up in a motel.
They even showed up the next day with bags of groceries and toys.
“Just for them to have a warm place to sleep, watch cartoons, you know things the kids do, you take it for granted, it’s been awesome,” a teary Shannon said.
Shannon said what the officers have done has helped them to imagine normal life again.
“It’s a total game changer, the motivation is there and the morale kicked in and I’m ready,” she added.
So many of us don’t realize the outreach work police officers do to help their communities.
Watch the video below for more details: