'He Made Our Day': When Toms River Family Forgot To Put Trash Out, Worker Took Care Of It

TOMS RIVER, NJ — We have all been there. Maybe we were out late. Maybe we were sick. For whatever reason, we forgot to put the garbage cans at the curb.

And when it happened to the Cirillo family earlier this week, it could have been an added frustration at a busy time, because their garbage cans were filled to the brim.

Thanks to the kindness of a stranger — Toms River Township public works employee Mike Scalley— they have one less annoyance, because he got out of his truck, grabbed their cans and pulled them to the curb, and emptied them.

"He made our day," Erica Cirillo wrote in a post on Facebook Wednesday, where she shared the home surveillance footage of Scalley's actions.

"We are so tired, we forgot to put them out," Cirillo said in the post. "It’s been a rough month."

Cirillo said their daughter had recently come home after spending 15 days in intensive care in the hospital.

"She hasn’t been sleeping at all, so we go to bed at 3 a.m.," she said. "She has a long recovery, so we are so grateful for what he did."

In the video below, you can see the lid of one can partially open from the amount of garbage inside as Scalley wheels them to the curb, empties them, and continues on with his route.

"This restores faith, everywhere. This is what needs to go around the internet. Thank you for being so kind," Cirillo wrote.

"One of my goals when I became the mayor was to improve customer service for our residents," Mayor Maurice Hill said. "I told the employees that we work for the residents and they pay our salaries and deserve to have courteous customer service. We may not be able to give every resident the answer they are looking for but we will try to provide good service in a courteous manner."

"Whenever I receive a complimentary email highlighting great customer service that they received, I present them with a certificate of appreciation," Hill said. "A copy of the email and the certificate are entered into the employee's record."

This has been updated with comment from Mayor Maurice Hill.

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