B.C. Mounties and a store owner went "above and beyond" to ensure two girls put into foster care on Christmas Eve would still have a chance at a happy holiday.
On Dec. 24, two RCMP officers were called to check the kids, who were living in a house in Trail.
A social worker was brought in to move the girls, aged five and nine, to a foster home around 10 p.m., Sgt. Darren Oelke said in a news release Tuesday.
Realizing the girls wouldn't have any Christmas presents to open with the foster family, Constables Elwood and Flewelling embarked on a secret Santa mission.
The pair raced around town, trying to find a store that was still open so they could buy gifts for the kids. They even rooted through their own homes for potential presents, but came up empty.
As a last-ditch effort, they called Craig Lattanville, who owns the local Canadian Tire store. Lattanville met the officers and opened up shop for a last-minute shopping spree.
In the end, the Mounties gave the children's new foster mother handfuls of gifts to wrap in time for Christmas — and when the officers went back to Canadian Tire the next morning to pay, Lattanville refused to take their money.
"We have a tight-knit community with great people that never surprise me [with] what each of them do to help one another,” he told Global News.
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