Three WSDOT workers found a bag of wrapped gifts on Christmas Eve and took to Facebook to find the owner. Find out what happened and why Madi Hilliard from WSDOT called the experience “like a Hallmark movie.”
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TRANSCRIPTION:
Erica:
Santa has a lot of helpers, especially here in the Northwest, and three of them were on duty, ready and willing to serve on Christmas Eve. They were Devit Cain, Eric Remy and Madi Hilliard from WSDOT. One of them is with us today. Madi, welcome to SPIRIT 105.3. I love this Christmas Miracle story, and I can’t wait for you to share with us.
Madi Hilliard:
So, usually at the beginning of our shifts, we go and we do something called road patrol. Since there isn’t an overlap, I think it’s like an hour, hour and a half between shift change. We just like to go and check road conditions, see if there’s any garbage, anything we need to pick up. So, it was our day shift just came on, which was Devit and Eric, and they found a bag. We usually think it’s garbage when we find a big bag like that. So, they got out and when they went to pick it up, they realized this isn’t garbage and looked in it and it was gifts. They were all wrapped in…. they had tags on ’em. So when they got back to the shed, they both took to Facebook and put out there if anyone had reported any missing presents. When they didn’t really get a response, they went to the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce to see if anyone had reported anything, and still we had no luck.
So when we got onto shift, we got a call from Devit and he told us the story. Just keep a lookout if anyone calls you. So I think it was about nine o’clock at night, I get a call from the Wenatchee lead and he says, Hey, my wife was on Facebook and saw this post. It was on a completely different page, but it was her brother looking for the gifts. His wife tagged me in the post. When I looked at it, I messaged, I think it was Mary was her name, and gave her my number to pass along to her brother. So, her brother called me about 11 o’clock, and I had him describe the gifts, what was in the bag. He described everything down to a T. So, we decided to meet at Steven’s Pass at the summit at 1:00 AM he had gone to Everett to be with his grandkids from Wenatchee. So, I was like, we’ll meet you halfway. We got up there and he was super excited about it. He said that they spent the whole day replacing those gifts when they noticed that they were gone, and he was just really excited to have them back. So, he went back down the hill about one 30 and made it home in time to do with his grandkids for Christmas, and we went back to the shed, but it was, like I said, it was like a Hallmark movie.
Erica:
Yes. What did it feel like to be a part of that Hallmark movie moment for you? What was going through your heart?
Madi Hilliard:
It was a lot of fun. It is hard working Christmas because obviously you want to be home with your family too. So, getting something exciting like that, being able to make else’s Christmas happen was just a great feeling. I mean, I felt like Santa.
Erica:
Oh, I bet you did. And what about the grandpa? I mean, you saved his Christmas. He must’ve been so grateful.
Madi Hilliard:
He was very grateful. He was very excited to have ’em back, especially since they’d spent the whole day replacing them. He just couldn’t believe it. When I had talked to his sister or I saw some posts that she made later, she just said he couldn’t believe that his good luck that someone actually found it and returned all the gifts.
Erica:
Wow. I mean, social media does have a good side, right, Madi?
Madi Hilliard:
Yeah. Yeah. And I think that it shows just how important, not only our personal, but our professional relationships are with each other. This happened over multiple sheds, multiple shift changes, multiple departments. Just being able to make this happen and keep that communication open was really important.
Erica:
It was like a relay race of the Christmas spirit.
Madi Hilliard:
Yes. Yeah.
Erica:
Does it make you look at what you do differently, Madi?
Madi Hilliard:
Yeah. You typically don’t get good endings like this. We pick up garbage stuff laying out of the back of vehicles all the time, and it’s usually never a good ending. So it feels really good that it was a good ending this time.
Erica:
Oh, Madi, you’re just terrific. Thank you to you and Eric and Devit and everybody there at WSDOT for catching the spirit big time this Christmas and happy New Year to you.
Madi Hilliard:
Thank you. Happy New Year.
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