A man who had every intention of robbing a Papa John’s store in Montana walked away with food for his hungry family but no money after a kind employee turned the situation around.

The employee said that late on Monday night, a man entered the store with his face obscured by a bandanna and passed a note demanding money. But just afterward, he broke down crying and said he really just wanted to feed his family. The employee calmly turned a difficult situation into an act of kindness and talked gently to the man, offering to make him a pizza and hot wings. The man accepted and sat down to wait on his food; once it was ready, he took it and left. He’s eluded police ever since.

Though local police chief Troy McGee says he doesn’t know what he could charge the man with–he never threatened anyone with a weapon and didn’t make off with any money–he says he’s still interested in tracking him down.

“We’d like to locate the suspect,” McGee said. “We’d hate to have him do this again.”

McGee also praised the employee for quick thinking and a good attitude, saying, “I’d say the clerk was pretty astute. I mean, he knows how to talk to this person. Kind of commiserated with him a little. Talked to him about it and you know actually changed his mind about robbing the place. That was pretty good.”