OGDEN, Utah (KTVX) – A Utah family stunned by the generosity of a Halloween trick-or-treater they noticed on their doorbell camera footage, decided they would find her to thank her.
With the help of social media, the family was able to find the trick-or-treater now known as “Beetlejuice Girl.”
“We had been out trick-or-treating and we had been watching (the doorbell camera) and I was like, ‘Oh, we have to hurry home because all these kids are leaving empty handed,’” Riley Coulson said after realizing that the candy bowl on their porch was empty.
However, when they got home, they found a surprise. Her husband immediately noticed that the bowl was full.
“So, I come and look and I’m like, ‘That’s not the candy we put out.’ And so, we checked the camera, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this sweet girl. She just put it in our bowl for other kids.’”
The next day, Coulson posted the doorbell video on social media. The clip shows a girl dressed up as Beetlejuice walking up to the porch and placing handfuls of her own candy into the empty bowl. In the background, her friends wait on the sidewalk.
On one community Facebook page called “You know your from Ogden if,” (yes, that’s how “your” is spelled on the page), the video gained a ton of traction as the community wanted to find this trick-or-treater so the Coulson family could reward her for her sweet actions.
Within a matter of hours, hundreds of people shared the post (by sharing the original post and creating their own) and thousands of people liked the post.
Nathan Kizerian has a Facebook page called “Utah Satire” and has amassed more than 150,000 followers. He uses his platform to poke fun at Utah, but also to highlight the good.
“I saw a lot of posts about people getting their candy bowls stolen and family heirlooms, and just all of these things,” Kizerian stated.
He created his own meme which he shared on his Facebook page in hopes of identifying the trick-or-treater.
“I think we need to elevate kindness especially when a child does something good,” he said.
He and his fiancée decided to gift a longboard to the anonymous do-gooder to pay it forward. If they could find her, that is.
As it turns out, the social media campaign reached many in the community, including the girl in the doorbell cam video.
“Throughout the whole day I’m just thinking to myself, ‘Dang. I can’t believe it’s up there and that people know me as Beetlejuice girl,’” Mykala Martinez-Branz said with a laugh.
Two days after Halloween, Mykala’s mom saw the Coulson family’s post on Facebook and immediately recognized her daughter. Someone else saw the post on “Utah Satire” and recognized her as well.
The social media blitz worked, and the families soon connected.
When Nexstar’s KTVX asked Mykala why she decided to give up most of her candy she replied, “I’m a teenager and this holiday is typically for kids, so I wanted another kid to have a good handful of candy from this house and I didn’t really need the candy much anyway.”
It was a sweet gesture that touched the community.
On Tuesday afternoon, Kizerian gifted the longboard to the young lady and the Coulson family planned to visit her Wednesday after she gets out of school to thank her in person.
“Her mom says her favorite is Reese’s and I can’t wait to give her peanut butter cups and Reese’s Pieces,” Riley Coulson said. “Just all of it. The whole nine yards.”
