Anonymous people give woman free car

MOSES LAKE — Christmas came early when several anonymous people joined together to obtain a car for a Moses Lake woman who lost her vehicle in an accident.

In late October, an intoxicated man crashed into 26-year-old Tawny Randall’s parked car while she was sleeping in her home. The man drove away but came back and was later arrested.

Her 1992 Dodge Dynasty, which she had for less than two weeks, was totaled.

After the crash, Tawny’s mother, Marlene Haley, wrote a letter to the editor that was printed in the Columbia Basin Herald shortly afterward.

“My daughter is a single mother,” Marlene wrote in the letter. “She is going to school full-time and works part-time. She had just spent what little she could save up and put a down payment on this used car. She did not even have a chance to get insurance.”

She went on to write about how her daughter would most likely get no restitution due to the circumstances of the collision.

After reading the letter to the editor, several local residents came together and purchased Tawny a 1993 Ford Taurus.

She came to the Columbia Basin Herald Tuesday morning to receive the car.

The Herald was not involved in the donation, it was merely a place for the car to be dropped-off anonymously.

“Some local businesses got together and donated a car to you,” Publisher Harlan Beagley told her. “They want to be anonymous.”

The anonymous group pre-paid the license fee and taxes on the car and placed new snow tires on it. All she had to do was sign her name on the title.

Moses Lake Towing towed the car to her home from the Herald for free since it is not insured yet.

“I wish I knew who it was so I could thank them,” Tawny said. “It’s definitely helping me out a whole lot. I really appreciate this.”

As she, her mother and her 16-month-old son Isreal walked outside to see the car for the first time, Marlene began to cry because she was happy about people coming together to give her daughter the car.

“Every time she really thinks about it, she cries,” Tawny said about her mother. “I cry because of the generosity. People don’t really do that type of thing.”

Having the car replaced means Tawny can continue to go to work at Walmart and attend school at Big Bend Community College to earn an accounting degree. She said she was sharing her mother’s car but it was difficult. In addition to work and school, she has many doctor’s appointments for her son and herself since she is 8 months pregnant and her mother needs her car so she can commute to work.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” she says to the anonymous donators. “They have no idea how much stress this is relieving. It couldn’t have been a better time.”

Before learning she was getting a free car, Tawny worried she wouldn’t be able to buy items she needed for her new baby and Christmas gifts for her son.

Now she can.

“I just want our readers to know how impressed I am with Moses Lake, especially during these hard economic times, people are still able to donate,” Beagley said. “The credit should go to area businesses. I would challenge everybody to do something nice for their neighbors this holiday season.”