Kids, cops enjoy special buying spree during Operation TOYS

Missouri Highway Patrol Lt. Steve Frisbie, left, walks the toy aisles in the Jefferson City Kmart while helping Jaughn Robinson pick out his Christmas gifts during the annual Operation T.O.Y.S. on Saturday morning.
Missouri Highway Patrol Lt. Steve Frisbie, left, walks the toy aisles in the Jefferson City Kmart while helping Jaughn Robinson pick out his Christmas gifts during the annual Operation T.O.Y.S. on Saturday morning.

Once a year, the crisp, December morning stillness is pierced by what may sound like millions of law enforcement sirens - all blaring at once.

For Jefferson City residents who've been around during the last quarter-century, that's the perhaps-familiar sound of what now is called "Operation TOYS" (Take Our Youth Shopping), once known as "Shop With A Cop."

Saturday morning, the sound was produced by about four dozen vehicles from at least a half-dozen law enforcement agencies, as they ferried 55 eager youngsters to the Kmart parking lot.