Burglars robbed 8-year-old on Christmas Eve, so his aunt decided to 'break in' too — but for a beautiful reason
The single mom had saved all year long to buy Christmas presents for her 8-year-old.
The night before Christmas Eve, a 21-year-old woman was out watching "The Walking Dead" when a phone call completely shook her. It was her friend Brian's sister, a single mom, who informed them that some intruders had broken into her house and stolen all the Christmas presents she'd bought for her son while she was at work. The author met her friend's sister, inconsolable in the aftermath of the robbery, but decided to break into her residence again, this time as her Secret Santa. The author (u/tubbytaser) posted the incident on Reddit on December 28, where it went viral with over 1k upvotes within the first two days.
The woman had traveled out of town for some work but had to check into a hotel following an abrupt snowstorm. She was stuck and had nothing to do, so she decided to meet her friends and bring in Christmas Eve together. "We watched 'The Walking Dead' and smoked the devil's lettuce to celebrate together," the woman recalled. While they were enjoying the show, Brian got a call from his sister. "After he hung up, he was in tears and asked if we could all go to his sister's place without explaining what was going on," she revealed. The group reached Brian's sister's residence and was heartbroken to see her crying nonstop. The single mom had saved all year long to buy Christmas presents for her 8-year-old, but the horrifying burglary took everything she'd worked for.
That night, the author went back to her hotel room but couldn't stop thinking about Brian's sister. The next morning, she woke up early and left her hotel to buy presents for Brian's nephew, the 8-year-old on the brink of losing Christmas magic. The author knew that her friend's sister would be at work until evening and her son was supposed to be away until Christmas, so she had the entire day to plan for the surprise.
"I arrived at her apartment while she was working. I had to work fast like a ninja to get the gifts from my car without being seen by neighbors, so they wouldn't call the cops on me. I placed all the gifts under their tree, filled their stocking, tidied up their apartment, and left," she recalled. That night, Brian shared a touching post, thanking that special somebody who had surprised his sister and his nephew. "No one ever found out it was me, and I felt it was time to finally share my personal favorite Christmas story with someone," the author said.
Even after 11 years, the author remembers the incident so vividly because she helped someone at their lowest point. She felt sorry for Brian's sister, and that compassion, or rather, empathy, motivated her altruistic actions. This explains the basics of C. Daniel Batson's Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis, which argues that altruistic behavior born out of genuine empathy doesn't expect anything in return. While they may not have a selfish agenda behind helping someone, their act of doing good eventually has profound effects on the helper’s own well-being. This phenomenon is called the "warm glow effect," and describes the positive emotional satisfaction experienced by individuals after helping someone they felt empathetic towards.
Meanwhile, people went all out praising the author for her selfless gesture to the single mom and her son. For instance, u/subject_ad_4561 commented, "I think you are to be admired for more things than I can ever say, but the main thing is you did this all out of the kindness of your heart and never took ownership for being the one that turned her whole Christmas around."
u/bumblingebullience shared, "As a single mother of 4 who is completely alone in the world and pinches all the pennies that I can, we need more humans like you. Thank you for being a good one. This makes me hopeful that there truly are still good people out there." Similarly, u/chunkyasparagus wrote, "There is a special place in hell for people who break into others' houses and steal Christmas presents. F*** whoever did that."
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