Amy Lewis, a dispatcher for Anderson's Tow in Ceres, didn't spend her Christmas bonus on herself but for people she didn't even know.
The generosity of the grandmother was unprompted when she encountered a woman whose car was stolen along with a trunk filled with gifts for her children. The car was recovered by Ceres Police, which on a rotation basis called Anderson's to have the car impounded. The car had been stripped of the Christmas gifts.
"When the owner of the vehicle came in, her main concerns were the contents in the trunk of the vehicle ... where she had hidden her five children's Christmas presents," said Richard D. Rice, the operations supervisor of Anderson's Tow. "As suspected, the presents were no longer in the vehicle."
When the three-year dispatcher learned that the mother had no gifts for her children - aged 4 to 13 - she decided to act.
"It thought, that's horrible," said Lewis. "Being a mother and it's Christmas time, that's the whole reason I did what I did."
Without tipping off the mother to what she was doing, Lewis did some sleuthing and located the car's owner on Facebook and asked to be a friend. After accepting the friendship request on Facebook, Lewis checked out photos of the woman's children to get an idea of their ages.
"I did it on the sly without the mother knowing," said Lewis, who has been working for Anderson's for three years.
Amy then took her own four-year-old grandson shopping to see what he items he responded to, then purchased them as gifts for the woman's two four-year-old twins.
She had the gifts delivered on Thursday, by her daughter, since Lewis had to work.
"It's for kids. That's the whole point."
The generosity of the grandmother was unprompted when she encountered a woman whose car was stolen along with a trunk filled with gifts for her children. The car was recovered by Ceres Police, which on a rotation basis called Anderson's to have the car impounded. The car had been stripped of the Christmas gifts.
"When the owner of the vehicle came in, her main concerns were the contents in the trunk of the vehicle ... where she had hidden her five children's Christmas presents," said Richard D. Rice, the operations supervisor of Anderson's Tow. "As suspected, the presents were no longer in the vehicle."
When the three-year dispatcher learned that the mother had no gifts for her children - aged 4 to 13 - she decided to act.
"It thought, that's horrible," said Lewis. "Being a mother and it's Christmas time, that's the whole reason I did what I did."
Without tipping off the mother to what she was doing, Lewis did some sleuthing and located the car's owner on Facebook and asked to be a friend. After accepting the friendship request on Facebook, Lewis checked out photos of the woman's children to get an idea of their ages.
"I did it on the sly without the mother knowing," said Lewis, who has been working for Anderson's for three years.
Amy then took her own four-year-old grandson shopping to see what he items he responded to, then purchased them as gifts for the woman's two four-year-old twins.
She had the gifts delivered on Thursday, by her daughter, since Lewis had to work.
"It's for kids. That's the whole point."
