Strangers come to rescue after young family's Christmas gifts stolen
A young Melbourne family's community has rallied around them and showed them the true spirit of Christmas after the children's gifts were stolen.
After the parents discovered that the unthinkable had happened strangers banded together to drop replacement gifts on their doorstep.
Alex and David Young stored the children’s presents at their factory in Aspendale Gardens, south-east of the city.
But when they went to collect them on Christmas Eve, they couple were devastated to find they were gone.
The thieves broke into the factory sometime over the past few weeks.
“When I went to go get them at 9 o'clock last night so we could wrap them and put them under the tree for the kids this morning, someone had broken in and taken the best of the toys,” Mr Young told 7 News.
The couple reported the robbery to the police, who are now investigating.
They shared their story on a Facebook community group as a warning to others, but were overwhelmed with the response.
Within hours of hearing of the family's despair via social media, strangers from the local community arrived bearing gifts.
Dozens of strangers came together to deliver presents in the middle of the night. The outpouring of support was more than anyone could imagine.
Overwhelmed and a little bit stunned, Ms Young said it was never the couple's intent to try and get free presents, but rather a place to vent their anger and frustration over the Christmas tragedy.
“Everyone just pounced and straight away offered support. This was 10.30 at night so there was no option of going to the shops.
"We all had extra gifts in our cupboards, we all had gifts under our trees.”
The Aspendale Gardens mother said the children were "ecstatic" to receive the gifts on Christmas morning.
"This is as good a Christmas they've ever had. The look of joy on their faces was amazing," she said.
“To see the amount of people come together and help us out, people we've never seen before and people we'll probably never see again,” Mr Young said.
“I love Christmas, family to me is everything, but I have never experienced such an enormous spread of love of support.”
