SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - No porch pirate could ruin a Southwest Miami-Dade girl’s first birthday, even after one was brazen enough to try.
Days after a bandit on wheels swiped the outfit that little Janiah was going to wear for her birthday bash last weekend, there is a feel-good update to this tale of holiday theft.
Back on Dec. 15, Janiah’s actual birthday, her mother, Kathryn Navarro, said she noticed a masked individual outside her home.
“I see this strange man on our doorstep, and I was kind of shocked,” said Navarro. “I was on the Turnpike, and I had to pull over.”
The bicycle burglar came up to the family’s house and grabbed a package off the porch.
Inside that package, Navarro said, was a custom-made outfit for Janiah’s first birthday — a jacket, shoes, a bow and a tutu — all made specially for the birthday girl.
“I’m just – I’ve had a really hard year, and I sacrifice a lot for it to get this outfit for my daughter,” she said.
Navarro said she didn’t sacrifice the fun of the party. She found a new outfit for Janiah.
The plot twist in this story came the next day, when Navarro received a new notification in her Instagram direct messages.
“I open it, and it’s from a user that I don’t know who he is, and he said, ‘I have your outfit,'” said Navarro.
As it turns out, that porch pirate sailed into the wrong waters when he walked into a gas station early Monday morning.
The clerk recognized the subject from Navarro’s surveillance video and, she said, he fought to get the outfit back.
“He’s like, ‘This package, I know that you took it from one of one of my family members’ house,’ and he had to, like, literally struggle [with] the man for the bag and for the package back,” said Navarro,
While this good Samaritan is a total stranger, he might be more like a Santa Claus.
Navarro said he got the outfit back to Navarro and Janiah — restoring their faith in others.
“He doesn’t want any recognition. He just wanted to do the right thing,” said Navarro. “It just really restores my faith in humanity, that there’s still good people out there.”
Soon Janiah will have another special way to make memories in this outfit. Navarro has planned a professional photo shoot for her … so these memories will last a lifetime.
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