The Buzz: The fluffiest feel good story you’ll read all week

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

By Ben Cannon

When little Grant Hagen wanted his first Razor scooter, his mother told him they could sell the Tiny Tike bed he had outgrown and put that money toward the Razor.

Enthused for the opportunity to learn at an early age a valuable lesson in free-market economics - or maybe just excited to get a scooter - Grant, 4, with the help of sister Annabel, 7, made a hand-lettered sign in late May advertising the sale and placed the blue, racecar-shaped bed frame outside the family’s Hansen Street home.
“It was very independent, they did it on their own,” mom Audrey said.

Rather than receiving a call or offer on the bed frame, which had been a hand-me-down, the Hagen family awoke the following day, a lovely Sunday morning, to find that someone - perhaps drunken night marauders, walking between Town Square bars and Snow King Avenue - had taken the racecar sleeper for toddlers.
“It made me the most (upset), because it was so apparent that a little kid was selling the bed,” Audrey said. “That the person didn’t consider the impact it would have on a four-year-old made me really sad.”

Distraught, she wrote a letter to the editor at another local paper, simultaneously hoping for answers and sarcastically mocking the thief or thieves.
“Thanks for taking the bed, but you forgot to pay us,” she said.
After reading the letter, several Hagen neighbors - and some unfamiliar faces - offered money to ‘buy’ the missing bed.

One neighbor gave Grant $40. Another gave him $8. About four or five more - an unrelated group of individual altruists - “had their hands in their pockets” to donate, but Audrey politely declined, she said.

“Even people were coming up to me at the post office and asked if we’d found the bed.”
Audrey took the money to online megastore eBay, where she found and purchased a brand new Razor, marked down considerably from its $80 retail price.

She said that if someone had expressed an interest in the bed but could not afford the $50 asking price, she would have been open to a negotiation.

Photo by Stan Detry
Grant Hagen enjoys his new ride.

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The Buzz: The fluffiest feel good story you’ll read all week | Planet JH News Article: General News

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