Town’s generosity restores family’s gifts, helps them get a car

'So many blessings ... We can't count them'

The Jones family, Logan, 3, and Keith and Bonnie, check out their new car. The family was involved in an accident earlier this week and was unable to recover personal belongings - including some Christmas presents - that were in the car, which was towed. The family was unable to pay the towing fee, but on Friday an outpouring of community support helped pay the fee, retrieve their belongings and obtain another car.

Christmas might not be so bad after all for Bonnie and Keith Jones.

The couple said Friday they were overwhelmed by the response from the public after an article in Friday’s Journal-World described their problems stemming from an unpaid towing bill.

By midafternoon, a combination of strangers had given the family more than $1,500 in donations, in addition to paying to get their wrecked car out of a towing lot so that Bonnie Jones could retrieve her Christmas presents and leather jacket from the car.

“It’s so many blessings that we just can’t count them all,” said Bonnie Jones, who is nine months pregnant with her second child. “My husband used the words that he feels like he’s been reborn. He’s been trying not to cry all day long.”

Those who came forward to help included a woman who showed up at the Lawrence Police Department late Friday morning with an envelope containing $215, the amount of the Jones’ initial towing bill. Like many of the people who donated, she said she wanted to remain anonymous and wanted to donate even though the bill already had been paid.

One man gave the Jones family $1,000 for a down payment on a used car and agreed to co-sign for them on the loan, Bonnie Jones said. Another paid to have the couple’s impounded car taken to a different lot and gave the couple $300 cash.

Bonnie Jones, who is nine months pregnant, looks through the Christmas presents she was able to recover from her towed car on Friday. The car was towed after her family's car was hit by another car in an accident.

She said the family planned to put the donated money toward monthly car payments.

The family’s Oldsmobile was destroyed Tuesday night when another driver ran a red light and struck them on south Iowa Street.

The Jones family said they tried to retrieve Bonnie’s leather jacket and three of her Christmas presents from the vehicle at a towing lot but were told they couldn’t get the items until the bill was paid.

Michelle Moon, one of the owners of A & M Towing, 501 Maple St., declined comment Friday. She said Thursday that she had children of her own to feed and wasn’t being hard-hearted – just concerned about whether her company would get paid.

She said that under Kansas law towing companies could keep items left inside cars – with the exception of some necessary items such as medical prescriptions and car titles – until the bill was paid.

Also, Moon said Thursday she wasn’t aware there were any presents in the car until reporters began calling her about it.