By Dee L. Shopper|Beacon bargain reporter

Better late than never. At least that’s what differently financed children in the Bass Lake area must be thinking right now.

Shop-with-a-Cop, the annual present-buying excursion sponsored by Bass Lake Area Police, was nearly scrapped this year due to spending overruns and funding underruns.

But a suggestion by Bass Lake University’s consumer watchdog Glenn Nickeldime caught the attention of the BLAP police chief SWAC 2018 was given new life.

“Fortune smiles on those who look for it,” Nickeldime said. “And personally, I look for it everywhere. By the way, can you validate this parking ticket?”

Nickeldime’s penny-pinching plan calls for BLAP officers to take the gift-hungry children not to the big box stores as has been the norm in the past, but to Bethesda’s Thrift Cornucopia instead.

“She’s got everything the mega stores have but for much less and without all the packaging,” Nickeldime said. “See this pocket grinder here? Got it for a buck.”

BLAP chief Gwen “Tug” McNabb thinks Nickledime’s solution is a good one.

“As solutions go, it’s a good one,” McNabb said. “The thought of all these kids waking up Christmas morning without any presents under the tree makes me very uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.”

Little Skip “Rocky” Tumaloo, 9, is excited at the prospect of Saturday’s SWAC event.

“I’ve been told Bethesda’s Thrift Cornucopia has quiet the small power tool selection,” Tumaloo said. “I’ve been looking for a miniature torch to tease my little sister with. Nothing harmful, mind you. Just something to, let’s say, tan her tiny fingers a bit.”

Nickeldime hopes to peddle his Thrift-with-a-cop to other police forces around Michiana.

“I think it’s a brand that I can make work for me,” he said. “Say, are you gonna eat the rest of that sandwich?”