When two of our crew members saw a big green plastic bag on the side of the road, they thought it was just garbage. It was Christmas Eve and two members of the Leavenworth shed crew were checking conditions on US 2 near the Big Y east of Leavenworth, which had been cleared and treated earlier in the day. But when they picked up the bag, they discovered it was filled with Christmas gifts, all wrapped and tagged. “It’s almost always a big bag of garbage, so it was quite a surprise,” said Devitt Kane, a member of the Highway Maintenance crew.
Devitt and Eric Remey both shared the discovery on a local Leavenworth Facebook group, hoping someone might know something about it. When they didn’t get any responses, they even checked with the Leavenworth Chamber to see if anyone had reported a lost bag of gifts. “We understood how important this could be for someone’s Christmas,” Devitt explained. Meanwhile, word started spreading via social media. Finally, their post got a response. Someone had posted about lost gifts in another group, and the community started putting the pieces together.
Meanwhile, grandfather David Carlile was feeling really disappointed. When he reached his Christmas destination, he found an empty spot where his grandchildren’s gifts had been in the back of the truck. “I spent that afternoon trying to replace anything I could.” So when his sister told him she had made a connection on social media and had a lead on getting the gifts back, he couldn’t believe his good luck.
The loop was closed, and a Christmas miracle happened around 1 AM on the summit of Stevens Pass. Since it was the night shift, Maddie Hillard was the one to make the final handoff to David. She said, “It felt like something out of a Hallmark movie.” (WSDOT Article)
