(WTVA) TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) - If you’ve ever heard the story of the Grinch, You’d see the comparison. Burglars stole a trailer that just one day later would have been filled with gifts headed to nursing home residents.
Chick-fil-A on Barnes Crossing Road had collected the presents as part of its Golden Angel Tree program. But sometime Monday night, three burglars made off with the trailer that was to be used for sorting and storing all gifts for as many as 375 nursing home residents in Tupelo, Okolona, and Amory. When franchise owner Jamey Finley arrived at the restaurant, he noticed the trailer gone. He called Tupelo Police - and about that time, he got some good news.
"It just so happened that [Tupelo Police] had a call on the same line at the same time I was calling in where someone had been pulled over for suspicious behavior that had my trailer," says Finley. "So they were able to make an arrest, and get the trailer back to us [Tuesday] morning within a few hours of it being missed."
Finley picked up the trailer -- and he and his team went on about the business of making Christmas merry for all those senior citizens. He also says the givers of all these gifts are twice-blessed...
"The person you're giving it to," says Finley. "And you as the person receive a blessing for giving it as well."
So at the end of the day, Christmas will go on as planned for those hundreds of men and women at nursing homes in the region. And in a final twist, Jamey Finley decided not to press charges against the three burglars.