Patrol officers pass out $100 gift cards across Fort Worth

Anthony Malone of Fort Worth had walked out of QuikTrip on Wednesday night when an officer told him not to move.

Malone was stunned.

“I said, ‘What? I haven’t done anything,’ ” Malone said Thursday. He had just talked to the officer inside the store at 6601 Brentwood Stair Road.

But it wasn’t what he thought.

The patrol officer radioed in and two other officers arrived. Then they handed him an envelope containing a $100 bank gift card.

“The officer said 'You look like you worked so hard today,' ” Malone said. “'We are going to give you a $100 gift card from the Fort Worth Police Department.'”

Malone couldn’t believe it.

“I asked them, ‘Is this real?’ ” Malone said. “I opened and there it was.”

Patrol officers are handing out $100 gift cards to residents as part of a program to have a positive impact on families and neighborhoods, police officials said.

The program is a combined effort by the Fort Worth police department and the Fort Worth Police Awards Foundation, which donated $10,000 worth of gift cards.

“Patrol officers will randomly select citizens to distribute gift cards,” police spokesman Daniel Segura said in an email Thursday. “Gift cards are not entirely based on perceived needs, more so on making an impact with the citizens — making someone’s day.”

Malone, 40, said he had stopped at the convenience store shortly after 9 p.m. to get two hot dogs and a drink. He had just been to Bible study at Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church.

The father of 17 children, nine boys and eight girls, had been painting all day.

“God is greater,” Malone said. “I need it.” He said he planned to invest the money.

President Rick Van Houten of the Fort Worth Police Officers Association said on Thursday that it was the policy of his group not to release the names of the officers for their safety.

“The focus on this program is the impact on citizens,” he said. “Not of the officers giving out the gift cards.”

This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 5:52 PM with the headline "Patrol officers pass out $100 gift cards across Fort Worth."