It’s not a secret that the relationship between police officers and civilians isn’t always ideal, and it seems like some people are actually afraid of the police or associate them with very negative and hostile feelings.

It certainly looks like an unknown couple at a Waterfront restaurant in Homestead, Pennsylvania, felt that way.

The two entered the restaurant, but the man refused to sit at the table next to a table where four police officers were seated.

The experience was definitely very weird for the 29-year-old police officer Chuck Thomas. He was simply dining with three of his colleagues and has always felt very welcome and appreciated in the restaurant and his neighborhood.

However, this incident was clearly very different.

Eat N’ Park server Jessy Meyers recalls how the whole thing started.

“A table goes to sit down and the guy looks over at one of the police officers and was like, ‘Nah I don’t want to sit here.’ So they got moved completely opposite, away from the police officers,” Jessy told ABC 7 News.

Officer Thomas was clearly a bit shocked, but he wanted to assure the couple and the man, in particular, that everything was okay.

“We were seated at the back of the restaurant and the server went to seat a couple across from us at a table, and it was a male and a female, and they made eye contact and he said, ‘I’m not sitting there, I don’t want to sit there,” he told TODAY.

“I looked over and said, ‘It’s okay, sir. You won’t have to worry about it, we won’t hurt you.”

The reaction from the man wasn’t exactly friendly, to say the least.

“He looked at me hard again and said he’s not sitting here and walked away.”

You can imagine that the police officers were anything but amused with the ordeal, but instead of escalating and making things worse, Officer Thomas and his colleagues devised a sneaky yet kind plan.

They started debating on how to take care of this situation, and it was Officer Strang who came up with a rather remarkable idea.

“I finished my meal and Officer Strang thought well, ‘we should pay his tab.’” Officer Thomas said.

Even though his colleague came up with the idea of paying the couple’s tab, it was actually Officer Thomas who paid for it. He also left behind a generous tip.

The police officer also saw this as an opportunity to write a message on the check.

“Sir, your check was paid for by the police officers that you didn’t want to sit next to. Thank you for your support,” the note read.

Officer Thomas had already left the restaurant before he got the change to see the couple’s reaction, but one of his fellow officers decided to stay around for a bit because he was curious.

“The guy looked at him, laughed a little bit, and said thanks.”

By paying for the hostile couple’s bill, Officer Thomas wanted to show that he and his partners were there for the couple, even when they didn’t want them to.

“It just dawned on me, I should do this real quick just to show this guy look, I don’t know if you had bad experience with the police in the past—you may have you may have not—but I just want you to know I never had an experience with you and I’m not here to do anything to you. And neither will my partners.”

“Essentially the whole goal of it was to let him know that we’re not here to hurt you, we’re not here for that,” he said. “We’re here for you. We work for the public. And we just want to better the relationship between the community and the police.”

Be sure to check out Officer Thomas’ interview below.

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Source: ABC News, TODAY