Michigan Officer Buys 5-Year-Old Girl a Booster Seat, Instead of Writing Her Mom a Ticket

Officer Ben Hall with Alexis DeLorenzo and her daughter

Walmart/AP

By Associated Press

10/09/2014 AT 09:30 AM EDT

A Michigan officer who pulled over a vehicle because a 5-year-old girl wasn't secured in a booster seat decided a ticket wouldn't cut it.

Instead, Emmett Township public safety officer Ben Hall bought her a seat.

"A ticket doesn't solve the situation," Hall told WXMI-TV. "What solves it is the child being in the booster seat like she should be. It was the easiest 50 bucks I ever spent."

Hall was on patrol Friday in the southern Michigan community when he pulled over the vehicle after someone reported that it had an unsecured young child inside. Alexis DeLorenzo and her daughter were riding with a friend, and Hall said DeLorenzo told him that she had fallen on hard times and couldn't afford a booster seat.

"I was in a spot where I could help her," Hall said.

DeLorenzo said she knew that they could have been ticketed, but instead, Hall told her to meet him at a Wal-Mart, where he bought her the seat.

"It changed my life," DeLorenzo said. "I'm never going to forget him. And neither will my daughter."