Rexburg’s Haylie and Kameron Merrick experienced a Christmas miracle on Saturday. In the process, they witnessed both the worst and the best of what human nature has to offer.

Early Saturday morning, Kameron had just left his job as a nurse at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls when he noticed his pickup truck had been broken into, a window smashed and his wallet stolen.

The thieves were allegedly two teenage boys who stole the wallet from the truck around 3 a.m. while it was parked at EIRMC.

From EIRMC, the teens drove their own pickup truck to a nearby Maverik convenience store, where a pump didn’t ask for a debit card number, allowing the teens to put $57.77 worth of gas into their own truck using the Merricks’ card. One of the boys was masked and walked into the store, where he tried taking money from an ATM using the Merricks’ card but failed to do so without the PIN number.

After finding the truck vandalized, Kameron called his wife, who immediately canceled the debit card. She later posted on an Idaho Falls Facebook page to see if anyone had witnessed the truck being vandalized outside EIRMC that morning.

While no one reported seeing the vandalism, several people stepped forward to help the Merricks.

A man named Levi from 3 Peaks Auto Glass replaced the truck’s shattered window. Levi also got a new car seat to replace the one that was covered in broken glass.

“Another man on Facebook with a detailing business came and picked up all the glass for free, so we wouldn’t have to worry about it cutting our son,” Haylie Merrick said.

Later that day, the Merricks went to their Rexburg bank, where they replaced Kameron’s cards. A woman standing at a neighboring teller station overheard what happened to the couple.

“She walked over and put down a $100 bill and said ‘Merry Christmas,’” Haylie said. “She heard the story and said, ‘I’m going to help you guys out.’ It’s crazy how many blessings came from not the greatest blessing.”

Haylie Merrick was thrilled to see so many people come together to help her family.

“Many, many people have reached out to see if they can help us with anything this Christmas,” she said. “It’s amazing to see it not just in Rexburg, but in Idaho Falls. They’ve rallied around us.”

Nothing else was taken from the truck. Kameron had accidentally left his wallet in the truck after the couple had taken a trip to Montana. They have only owned the truck for a year, Haylie Merrick said.

“Kameron forgot his wallet that was underneath a bunch of my son’s snacks from our trip,” she said. “(The thiefs) had to dig through all these things to get to the wallet.”

Haylie Merrick was grateful that the thieves hadn’t targeted a vehicle belonging to somebody who was in the hospital undergoing medical treatment.

“(Those thieves) had no way of knowing it was an employee’s car or somebody’s who was sick and already having the worst day of his life,” she said. “Part of me is kind of grateful they had gotten ours and had not gone through someone’s car who was going through something worse.”

Haylie Merrick was initially very upset about what happened.

“At first, I wanted to break one of their noses,” she said.

Haylie Merrick started to calm down after so many good Samaritans stepped forward to help her family. She now hopes the teenage suspects will “change and know that’s not the way to treat other people. Their lives would be a lot better if they didn’t treat people that way.”

Since Saturday, the Merricks have received a nonstop outpouring of love and support, reaffirming their faith in humanity this Christmas season.

“It’s been amazing how Christlike and kindhearted everyone has been,” Haylie Merrick said. “There were a couple of bad people but an infinite amount of good people (who helped).”