Naperville cops help youngsters play Santa

Debra Shelton’s 5-year-old grandson, Isaiah, hunted for gifts for his family at a Naperville Target — armed with a Christmas wish list and a police escort.

“That’s for my mama,” said Isaiah, pointing to a black picture frame in his red cart.

Shelton smiled when the boy pulled out a red Hot Wheels toy for his 2-year-old brother, Edward James.

“My grandson was tickled pink,” Shelton, of Naperville, said.

He was one of 10 shoppers participating in the “Shop with a Cop” program, organized by the Naperville Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 42.

The program selects disadvantaged children through the Naperville’s Social Services Unit. Each shopper receives $150.

Without the program, Julisha Taylor, 17, said she would not have been able to budget the diapers, cardigan and pair of boots she bought for her two nephews Wednesday.

“He just loves ripping off Christmas paper,” Taylor, of Lisle, said of her 5-year-old nephew, who will discover the boots under all that wrapping paper.

“He’ll love to wear them every day,” Taylor said.

Ten police officers, some of them in uniform, volunteered to push carts and offer some shopping advice.

“We got in this profession to help others,” said lodge President Vince Clark, who has coordinated the program the past three years. “We’re more than a bunch of guys looking for bad guys.”

Meanwhile, Jordan Kipper, 14, called his mom, who’s recovering from heart surgery in the hospital, to see what she wanted during his shopping spree. He couldn’t decide whether to give a Bears hat to her or his brother, both fans of the team, on Christmas morning.

Either way, “they’ll be shocked,” Jordan, of Naperville, said.

Officer Roger Otto said he’s not surprised the teenagers and the pint-size shoppers don’t roam aisles for themselves.

“They think of everyone else,” he said.