PACIFIC, Mo. – A family’s holiday road trip turned into a heartwarming tale of kindness when their car broke down on a dark highway in Missouri just days before the holidays.
Vanessa and Trenton Heuertz were traveling from Illinois to Oklahoma to spend the holidays with family when their 2018 Hyundai Sonata began smoking and shut off around 3 a.m.
“During the government shutdown, we missed about two to three pay checks. So we hit up on our savings a little bit and just waiting on the back pay and stuff like that but it kind of hurt the pocketbooks,” said Trenton Heuertz.
With their two young children in the backseat and no one they knew in Missouri, the Heuertz family called for help.
Missouri State Highway Patrol and St. Louis County Police responded, along with Officer Billington, whom the family now calls their angel.
Officer Billington contacted Big Boys Towing and Recovery, where driver Mike, a 20-year Coast Guard veteran, offered the family a free tow.
Despite the free tow, the family couldn’t afford a hotel, but a nearby manager offered them a deeply discounted room. Their relatives are now driving six and a half hours from Oklahoma to pick them up so Trenton can be home in time to watch his younger brother join the Navy.
The Heuertz family says the kindness they received during their ordeal is what they’ll remember most from their holiday trip.
“Definitely thank you to the police department and Mr. Mike for the towing because to be honest we thought we were going to be stranded,” said Vanessa Heuertz.
All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KTVI. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat information into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KTVI staff before being published.