A pre-Christmas scrooge made off with all four wheels of Eileen Caldwell's car but thanks to the generosity of a local tire dealership, she won't be stuck with a bill.
Bentley Degen, the Prince George zone manager for Kal Tire, read the Citizen's front page story Wednesday, which told of Caldwell's misfortune and how the theft from the driveway of her home will leave her short of money, jeopardizing a planned trip to Duncan to see her son and his family over Christmas.
Degen has offered to pay the $300 deductible insurance fee the recently-widowed Caldwell was left with to make sure her first Christmas without her husband Louis will not be spent alone.
"As long as I can work it out with ICBC, they can get her up and running, and I can get a cheque cut for her," said Degen. "I read the part about it messing up her Christmas with her family and if $300 is going to help her get to her family, let's help her out."
Degen is acting on the suggestion of one of Kal Tire's customers, who saw the story and used a customer service line Wednesday morning to inform the tire dealership of Caldwell's plight.
"I grabbed the paper and read the story and decided to help her out," Degen said. "That's kind of what we do as far as the industry is concerned. We can work out the details with her. We just wanted to help a person out at Christmastime."
Caldwell's friend and neighbour, Joan Kavanagh wrote a letter to the editor, which tipped off the Citizen news staff about the theft that happened early last Friday morning. Caldwell received a call from Degen after finishing her shift as as a community support worker for AimHi and was thrilled with the news.
"It totally made my day," said Caldwell. "I'm so excited and thankful for the generosity of somebody, like wow. I was so shocked. I thought I was hearing things. I have a permanent smile on my face now. I know Prince George has a heart in the community for helping people."
Caldwell said her trip to Duncan is now back in her plans. She also looking forward to having locking wheel nuts installed to prevent thieves from ever stealing her wheels again.
"I want to be able to sleep at night knowing my tires are going to stay there," she said. "If I had known about a key I would have done that. I don't want to have to go through this again. I'm just so thankful for the story. I knew I was going to be in the paper but I didn't expect to be on the front page and all the exposure."