When a thief stole $500 in diapers from a pregnant woman, Illinois policeman
COLUMBIA IL June 5 2021 — When Officer Tyler McWhorter arrived at the Columbia Lakes Apartments on the morning of April 25, he was met by a very pregnant and very upset woman.
An unknown thief had entered Kelly Augustine’s car through a rear door and made off with more than $500 worth of diapers and baby wipes that had been gifted to her and her husband, Logan, a transport driver in the U.S. Army.
Augustine, just weeks away from her due date, was is tears.
“She was standing outside near her car when I arrived. She was distraught,” McWhorter said. “She told me she was a week or two away from her due date and the diapers that family members and friends had bought for her and her husband’s baby had been removed from her car by some unknown person.
“She said she went out to the car at 11:30 p.m. and everything was there. She is about to have her baby and someone took all of her diapers. I just wanted to do something for her.”
There were no suspects, no clues and no leads. The car wasn’t even damaged.
But within four hours of the initial dispatch call, McWhorter was back at Augustine’s doorstep. Stacked in front of his squad car were 15 boxes containing more than 2,000 diapers, a partial replacement of all that had been taken.
Augustine said the stolen diapers were left stacked in her car because her husband was away on a military assignment and she was far too pregnant to carry the boxes up the stairs of the apartment building by herself.
But all appeared to be normal at 11:30 the night before she and Officer McWhorter made each other’s acquaintance. And she could have sworn that she had locked the car.
“I went out there that night and got my bag with my medicine in it and came back inside. My clicker was broken. So, I pressed the button on my door,” Augustine said. “Sometimes that doesn’t lock all of the doors, so I am guessing that’s what happened.”
By morning, 15 boxes and 10 packages of diapers, plus four cases of baby wipes were gone.
“They took every single one of them,” Augustine said. “Who would take three or four cases of baby diapers?”
Augustine was shocked and panicked. She called her mom and her husband. Then she called Columbia Police.
It had been already been a busy Sunday for McWhorter, who responded to 38 calls in all. After he took Augustine’s statement, he told her he would have to return later to take pictures of the undamaged vehicle and complete his incident report.
Instead, McWhorter went back to police headquarters, where he mobilized his colleagues around the Augustine’s story. He asked them to “wear their hearts a little bigger than their badges” in order to turn a good deed for a young family in need.
“I asked them if they wanted to donate some money to buy her some more diapers,” he said. “No problem — the co-workers were all in.”
When McWhorter arrived back at Augustine’s apartment at about 3 p.m. on the day of the crime, she thought he was there to continue the investigation.
There were more tears instead — but happy ones this time around.
“He said he wanted to help me anyway he could. He had gotten together with family and other people from the police department and they got diapers,” Augustine said. “Isn’t that crazy?”
Her eyes welled up as she hugged McWhorter, he recalled.
“… and I cried when I got back into the house,” Augustine said.
Before joining the Columbia Police Department last October, McWhorter worked in St. Louis County and Spanish Lake, Missouri.
Police work isn’t all arrests, ticket writing and traffic stops, McWhorter says. Cops are human, too, and the opportunity to turn misfortune into a positive connection with the public they serve is why he says he loves his job.
“I feel like officers are doing this everywhere in small acts all the time and people just don’t know,” said McWorter. “It’s a thing I’d like to believe most officers would do, not for the recognition, per se, I just believe it’s the right thing to do.
“If you’re in a position to help somebody, why wouldn’t you?”
The Columbia community has responded as well by donating diapers and other baby supplies via the police department.
Columbia Police Chief Jason Donjon said officers have enough to do in responding a typically high volume of calls, but agrees with McWorter that most relish the opportunity to do something positive.
“It’s so wonderful that he did what he did,” Donjon said of McWhorter. “Every police officer gets into this profession to help.”
There is no one more “wowed” than Augustine, who delivered a healthy girl on May 15. Baby Claire weighed in at 7 pounds, 1 ounce and was 20 inches long.
