Autistic Boy Gets Gift Set to Replace Toys Lost in Fire

After a fire burned down his house and destroyed his car collection, an autistic boy received a gift of more than 500 new toys.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on November 24 2008

Jonathan Reyes, a 7-year-old boy from Sylmar, California, has been collecting Mattel race cars and play sets since he was 2. Jonathan is autistic, and the car collection was his prized possession—the toys gave him a sense of comfort and stability in an otherwise chaotic life.

Last week, Jonathan’s family home was reduced to rubble in the California wildfires. Though he and his family went searching for the toys, they only managed to find a single burnt-up piece of metal that had once been a car. The rest of Jonathan’s cherished 500 car collection had been burned to ashes.

Jonathan was devastated by the loss, and local media outlets shared the family’s sad story. Luckily, someone was listening: a corporate staffer at Mattel, who decided to replace Jonathan’s entire toy collection, free of charge.

On Wednesday, Jonathan opened up a surprise gift box at his grandparents’ house, which included racetracks, game sets, and other Mattel memorobilia—not to mention hundreds of toy cars to replace the ones he had lost.

“He was speechless,” Jonathan’s mother, Jan Reyes, told CNN. “He didn’t say anything. He just smiled. He opened it up. It was like Christmas. All of us were bawling, crying. He was so happy.”

Though the loss of the family home has been a difficult transition for Jonathan, his condition seems to be improving considerably since the new cars arrived.

“The cars were like gold,” said Reyes.

Filed under: Business, General Interest,

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