Doorbell cameras show Halloween charity contrasted with trickery in Champlin
Halloween night at the Behrens house in Champlin was a bit different this year.
“I think like some trick-or-treaters took, like, the whole thing, like candy,” says Norah Gregory, one of five 9-year-olds from the neighborhood scouring the area for treats.
A Ring camera later revealed the unthinkable.
Around 8 p.m., the Behrens’ candy bowl was empty — but not for long.
“It was seconds that Easton came up with the idea to put the candy back,” recalls Melissa Behrens. “Sure enough, we found this group of kids that decided to put candy in the bowl for the next trick-or-treaters since we had run out.”
That’s right: The five 9-year-olds took candy from their own bags to fill up that bowl.
“Then I’m, like, ‘We need to put some candy for other people,’” Easton McDermott explains. “Then we start putting candy in, and then it’s like halfway full, and we left.”
“I think it was fun to give some candy to other people because we got so much of it that I thought it was nice to give some of it to other people,” adds Madison Gregory.
But this is a tale of two doorbell cameras.
Just minutes later, and yards away, a neighbor’s Ring device caught a man stealing a candy bowl full of treats.
“Ten minutes apart, and just yards apart from each other, we got an adult male stealing a bowl of candy and we got five kids giving back,” Behrens says. “It’s so different. So close, so different.”
The candy thief hasn’t been found.
But Behrens wanted to reward the good candy Samaritans.
She gave them $300 for a toy shopping spree. Those toys, in turn, will be donated to kids in the hospital at Christmas.
The youngsters also each received a giant chocolate bar, and gift cards for a pizza outing.
“They just kind of saw the empty bowl and felt like they needed to add something back to it,” says Kyle McDermott, Easton’s father. “It’s nice to see that the kids understand the concept better than some adults do at times. Just to give back and make sure everyone has a fun Halloween.”
Behrens says she just wanted to reward some pretty good kids.
“When you give kids the opportunity to give back and be kind and do the right thing, they’ll do it,” she says. “They brainstormed together and did it. It’s just kind of warmed my heart.”