Trusted Local News

Kids give Linwood couple a treat in Halloween doorbell video

  • Good Citizens


When Nick and Kayla Bachen left out a bowl of candy on Halloween, they didn't predict what would happen when only one piece was left.

But the Linwood couple was in for a treat when they looked at their Ring camera.

"When we returned home, we expected the bowl to be empty," Nick Bachen told BreakingAC. "Then my wife mentioned to me that not only was there candy in the bowl, but it wasn’t the candy we had put out."

Kayla Bachen made sure it was safe, while Nick went looking through the video.

That's when he saw a group of four kids as they approached the couple's porch on Vernon Avenue.

"Did someone take more than one?" a girl dressed as Oscar the Grouch asked as another girl with her looked into the bowl and said, "Oh!"

Instead, the girl in a pink tutu — likely Abby Cadabby in fitting with the group's seeming Sesame Street theme — noted that there was just one piece left, and asked the others if one of them wanted it.

"Oscar" took the candy, but as the group turned to leave, she thought of something.

"I bet someone dumped the bucket," she said before looking to the others.

"Should we give them some candy?" she asked.

"If you want," "Abby" responded, as each child dug into their own bag.

"There's not that many trick-or-treaters left," the girl in pink noted.

"But they deserve some too," a girl dressed as Elmo piped in.

"Abby" agreed as she dropped in the candy she already had taken from her own bag.

The Bachens were so impressed by the group gesture, they posted it to the Linwood Live Facebook group to share with their community.

Nick Bachen praised the kids' parents on the post, but also noted that he would remove the video if they came forward and did not want it up.

He said he had just one regret about his post.

"I mentioned in the post 'great job to the parents,' but I should have praised this kids more because they were the ones in the moment who made that incredibly nice decision," he told BreakingAC. "I still don’t know who they are but hope they receive all the kindness they deserve. I’d be happy to buy them a whole bag of their preferred candy each if I found out who they are."

But the kind kids were wrong about one thing: No one dumped the bowl.

"Last year was a ghost town on my street but this year we had a lot of traffic, all on doorbell video, and every single person was so nice and polite," he said. "No one emptied the whole bowl. But these kids stuck out for obvious reasons."




author

Lynda Cohen

BreakingAC founder who previously worked in newspapers for more than two decades. She is an NJPA award-winner and was a Stories of Atlantic City fellow.