Nearly two dozen members of the Brentwood police department swept through the city early Saturday, and descended on the Liberty Link shopping center. But it wasn't perpetrators they were after, it was pancakes.

And when the caravan of cop cars rolled into the Wal-Mart parking lot 90 minutes later, it wasn't for a sting operation, but a shopping spree.

"This is our biggest one ever," officer Jamie Fosenburg said of the Shop with a Cop event held last weekend. Twenty-two kids, nominated by Brentwood elementary schools, were picked up at their door by officers, Explorers and even the department's new chief. First stop: Brentwood Hickory Pit.

"We do it to give the kids a little extra holiday cheer," Fosenburg said as kids sipped sodas and tore through gift bags with glee, waiting for breakfast. "It also helps build a bridge between them and us; lets them see us as ordinary people, not just as the people who come and arrest bad guys."

After eating, it was off to Wal-Mart, where greeters, clerks and even a few customers met the group with a standing ovation as they filed through the door pushing empty shopping carts. Each child had $233 to spend, provided by sponsors.



with a Cop spree last weekend at Wal-Mart.