BRUNSWICK, Maine — Brunswick Police Sgt. Paul Hansen was just finishing his shift Tuesday afternoon when he got a call from a communications officer: A disabled woman on Harpswell Road was snowed in — in fact, she had been unable to leave her house for about 10 days, since the first of the many recent storms.
After working 10 hours, Hansen was ready to go home. Instead, he recruited a team of detectives, loaded a snowblower into the department’s Special Response Team truck, and responded in a pretty special way.
“I was in the other room and I heard this noise,” Thelma Toth, 69, said Wednesday, her voice cracking. “I looked out and somebody was snowplowing my driveway. I put on my boots and went outside, and there were four or five of them. I said, ‘I don’t have any money,’ and they just said, ‘No, no, no, just go inside and get warm.’”
Actually, Hansen and his colleagues, Detective Sgt. Marty Rinaldi and detectives Bill Moir and Rich Cutliffe, had pulled into the wrong driveway at first, Hansen said Wednesday. They shoveled the back porch at Toth’s neighbor’s house before realizing their mistake and heading to Toth’s home.
Toth got buried over the last 10 days, as three major snowstorms piled snow in her yard. She just had surgery on her leg, and recently lost her job.
She had seen an ad on Facebook for someone to plow for $25, and “dug out” her change, waiting until the most recent storm because she could only afford to be plowed out once. But Toth said the man drove by and said the snow was just too deep to plow.
She then described her plight to her best friend, who spent all day searching for help. After exhausting all her options without a solution, the Topsham woman called the police.
Hansen said he and his colleagues cleared the driveway and walkway in about an hour.
As Cutliffe finished shoveling the walk, Toth asked, “Who are you?”
“He said, ‘Brunswick police,’” she said Wednesday, again pausing to wipe her eyes. “He said, ‘We’re done,’ and I gave Rich a big hug.”
Toth said she isn’t sure how she can thank the guys — maybe she’ll bake them some cookies.
“I cannot thank you enough for helping this ole woman out!!” Toth wrote, in part, on the Brunswick Police Department Facebook page. “You guys are the greatest. Thank you thank you, bless your hearts.”
She’s planning now how to cope with the snow forecast for later this week. First and foremost, she said, as soon as the flakes start to fall, “I’ll be out there with my shovel.”