Tennessee Toddler surprised with gift from his heroes: the garbage men

Tennessee toddler surprised with gift from his heroes: the garbage men

Tennessee toddler surprised with gift from his heroes: the garbage men

A Tennessee toddler waits eagerly every Monday morning for the garbage truck to roll up to his Oak Ridge home. The boy, 3-year-old Wyatt Hagan, runs up to the truck and greets the three men who collect the trash on his street.

When the boy convinced his mother to bake cookies for the workers as a Christmas present, the men returned the favor with a special trip Friday and a gift for Wyatt -- a toy garbage truck, WBIR reported.

“He just gets so excited and runs up to the truck, happy as can be,” Jacob Smiddy, an employee at Waste Connections of Tennessee, told the television station.

"It's the highlight of our morning. It makes the day go by a lot easier," Waste Connections employee Ben Matchett told WBIR. "We talked about putting some of our tip money together to just thank him for the cookies he brought out to us."

Wyatt loves “anything with wheels," his mother, Leslie Hagan, told the television station. So the boy was very excited when the men came to his door Monday with a wrapped gift.

"Wyatt was so excited," Leslie Hagan told WBIR. "He yelled, 'What is it? What is it?' It was a garbage truck just like what they had.

“He sees them as heroes. He sees them in their big truck every week with their big machines. They always are giving him high-fives. They’re just really sweet men who take the time with him."

It was a no-brainer for the trashmen.

"The Lord put it on my heart that we should get him a little garbage truck," Smiddy told WBIR. "We just want him to give to others as we gave to him."

About the Author