Customers buy car for Raleigh bagel shop employee

1992 Buick LeSabre 

Here's a late-breaking Christmas miracle from Raleigh, North Carolina. 

Shirley Ratcliff, 47, has worked at Bruegger's Bagels since 2006. She takes three different buses to work, so she'd been saving for a car – until she was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and had to spend the money on treatment instead. 

Luckily, her customers are her biggest fans. 

Bagel Shop's Customers Surprise Their Favorite Employee with an Incredible Christmas Present

One of them, David Burton, organized a group of loyal customers – calling themselves the Shirley Fan Club – and began raising funds to get their favorite employee that car she so desperately wanted.  20 of her customers pitched in and brought her a 1992 Buick LeSabre for Christmas.

"When I asked [people] to contribute, they didn't even blink. As a matter of fact, they said, 'How much do you want?' And they said they would give $100, $200," Burton tells. "That just goes to show you that the Christmas spirit is alive and well in Raleigh, North Carolina." 

In just two days, Burton collected enough money to buy Ratcliff a used Buick LeSabre, covering taxes and insurance as well. The video above, from Raleigh's News & Observer newspaper, shows Ratcliff receiving her Christmas present. 

"She had been riding the bus for years and years and years and I know she was looking for a car," Dr. David Burton said. "So she had a health issue that kind of set her back and I decided to try to fix that problem for her."


"I had been wanting a car but I couldn't afford a car and I told the doctor when he asked me, I said, 'I can't afford it,' " Ratliff said Monday. "God is good! God is good!"

"It means the world to me. I love these people," Ratcliff tells ABC 11 News. "I just didn't know they would go to this extreme to do something like this."