COVINA >> An incident in which a woman believed two men were trying to buy her son from her at a Covina supermarket this week was actually a misunderstanding and not a crime, police said Friday.
The woman called police Wednesday evening to report two men had just tried to buy her 2-year-old son at the Baja Ranch Supermarket, 425 S. Citrus Ave., Covina police Sgt. Gregg Peterson said.
Police released surveillance images of the two involved men in hopes of developing information.
The plan worked, Peterson said. And investigators were confident Friday that the encounter was not a crime, but an attempted good deed gone awry.
“These two men were embarrassed and immediately came forward after watching the story on local media outlets,” Peterson said. “The Covina Police Department confirmed their story and believed there was no criminal intent, rather a philanthropic man trying to do a good deed.”
After speaking with the man who approached the woman Wednesday, “It was learned the Hispanic male is a successful local business owner who was at the market with his business partner to buy items for celebrating a successful year in his business,” Peterson said. “The subject observed the mother and her son and gave her compliments on how beautiful her son was. He said the boy resembled his son at that age.”
When the man spotted the woman and child again in the parking lot, with their car parked next to his, “He immediately thought it was a sign to be generous and reached into his pocket removing a $100 bill,” according to Peterson. “He offered the money to the woman and said, ‘Please take and use it to buy your son something’.’”
The woman refused to take the money, police said, and the man relayed to investigators that he left the $100 bill with her as a good deed before driving away.
Detectives re-interviewed the woman after obtaining the new information.
“The woman did say it was possible she misinterpreted what he said and what his intentions were,” Peterson said. “She was nervous and afraid because it seemed very strange to her that he was complementing her son so much and she was unsure of his intentions. The Covina Police Department is confident the incident was a misunderstanding and the men were overly complimentary and generous.”