The man said he couldn’t afford to pay for it.

Officer Justin Roby responded to a call reporting a shoplifter stealing baby formula at a Kroger supermarket in Kentucky last month.

When he arrived, the store's manager reported that a man in the store had attempted to steal the formula, Captain Darrell Kilburn of the London Police Department told BuzzFeed News.

London Police Department / Via Facebook: London-City-Police-Department

The man told Roby he was a single father who could not afford to buy formula for his six-month-old baby, WKYT reported.

"Me citing him for court wouldn't have done any good for him," Roby told WKYT. "He's already short on money, can't afford formula, so me making him appear in court, he's still not going to have any food for that baby."

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

"This is not an uncommon thing," he said. "We have officers helping people every day in that way."

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