The officers from the Strategic Response Group were at the Whole Foods in Union Square around 1 p.m. on Thursday when the incident occurred.
Although Whole Foods security called police, the officers were already in the store buying lunch.
[Ads /]
They found the woman being held by security with food in her bag she did not pay for. When the officers asked the woman what was going on, she told them she was hungry.
"We looked in her bag and all we saw were containers of food, we didn't see anything else, it was just necessity food," Officer Esnaidy Cuevas said.
That's when they decided to pay the $35 for her food instead of taking further action to arrest her.
"When you look at someone's face and you notice that they need you, they're actually hungry, it's pretty difficult as a human being to walk away from something like that -- we weren't raised like that, it's the right thing to do," Lt. Louis Sojo said.
A man who took a photo of the act of kindness and posted it online said it was a moving moment to witness.
"It was a nice moment for, you know, people, it was compassionate and the woman obviously was really grateful," Paul Bozymowski said.
The officers said the woman thanked them, but was pretty much speechless.
Chief of Department Terence Monahan highlighted the officers' good deed after Bozymowski posted the kind moment on social media.
The officers say they are extremely humbled but they did not do it for the attention.
[Ads /]
----------
* More Manhattan news
* Send us a news tip
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
*Follow us on YouTube
*