Woman finds out her car tampered with during a snowstorm for the best reason

Photo: David L Ryan/Globe Staff
Photo: David L Ryan/Globe Staff

After a particularly brutal nor’easter, longtime South Boston resident Eileen Murphy was shoveling her front porch and sidewalk when she noticed that her car’s window appeared to have been tampered with. She immediately thought the worst — that someone had broken into her car and smashed the window.

Murphy approached her car to assess the damage and found her window covered with a big black tarp. However, once she took a closer look, she was pleasantly surprised. It was not a smashed window at all. Instead, it was a neighborly act of kindness. A neighbor had taped up her car window because Murphy had left it slightly open. He did so to prevent her car from being damaged by the storm.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “Under the rain and snow, someone took the time to make sure my car was OK.”

She jokingly says it was medically sealed: “Not one drop of water was gonna get through it.”

The mystery person placed the plastic bag with strong blue tape to prevent any snow from going inside her vehicle. Murphy was so touched by the gesture that she tweeted photos of what had happened. She captioned the post, “My oh no moment turned into a no way moment. Left window down & an anonymous elf tarped & taped rear window. Thank you kind neighbor whoever you are. #Southie.”

“I was touched; what a nice gesture,” she says.

Murphy has lived in South Boston for 58 years and says that her community has always been kind and supportive, but this time she was so impressed she decided to share on social media. More than 250 people liked and commented on her tweet (at the time of this story).

Murphy thinks she discovered who the mystery person is, but she’s not entirely sure yet. She says that her neighbor’s car, who is a contractor, was parked behind her vehicle. And she imagines he had the materials handy to secure her window.

“If it’s who I think it is, I am not surprised at all,” she says. “He and his wife have helped me in previous occasions to shovel snow, as I walk with a cane and have partial mobility in one hand.”

She adds: “If I can confirm who it is I’m gonna be baking very nice cookies and a writing a very nice thank-you card.”

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