LEWISVILLE, Texas — When there’s winter weather and the dining room is closed, the McDonald’s at Vista Ridge Village in Lewisville doesn’t get many customers.
That’s why, during last month’s cold spell, general manager Paloma Robles was caught off guard by a knock at the door.
“I said, ‘Sir, the lobby is closed, but the drive thru is open,’” Robles recalled.
“I just asked, ‘We picked this man up from under the bridge and said we need a place to get warm and something to eat,’” said Doug Evans, the man who knocked on the door.
Evans and his wife, Kyli, were driving nearby when they saw a man shivering in the cold.
“I couldn’t even believe it,” Kyli Evans said. “I said, ‘Is that somebody sitting on the side of the road?’ The human heart in me could not allow somebody to just sit outside in 12-degree weather, so I just wanted to do something.”
“So we ended up at McDonald’s and she (Robles) let us in,” said Doug Evans.
Opening a locked door is strictly against company policy and something owner Clifton Johnson says his employees take seriously. Sometimes, too seriously.
“Me, being the owner, I’ve come up to the door when it’s locked and they don’t even let me in,” Johnson said.
However, whether it be intuition or something else, Robles opened the door.
“I needed to help him,” she said. “I would not let him be outside in the cold.”
Once inside, Robles learned the man’s name is Derrick Mounter.
Before he was homeless, Mounter went to college for graphic design, hoping to work as an animator one day.
Fortunately, he says, he doesn’t have drug or alcohol problems. Rather, he ended up on the streets after a breakup and a bad car wreck that nearly killed him.
“I prayed to God every single day, ‘God, please help me out of this situation,’” Mounter said.
Mounter says he tried desperately to get a job but, oftentimes, the only thing passersby gave him was their two cents.
“It made me not want to live anymore and it made me feel like God was not on my side anymore because (of) some of the things that they were saying,” Mounter said.
After telling Robles all of this inside the McDonald’s, she had something to say too.
“I said, 'I’m going to give you that job,’” Robles said. “'I’m going to give you that opportunity that you’re looking for.’ So he started crying.”
“She knew I had something better to live for and she didn’t want me to be in this situation anymore,” Mounter said.
Robles says Mounter has been a model employee, showing up at least 15 minutes early every day.
The entire team has made him part of their family.
“It almost brings me to tears because most people don’t want to give you a chance,” said Mounter.
“If we took the time to actually be more compassionate, that energy would help the entire universe,” Johnson said.
“It could change the world,” said Robles.
“I think you’d find a lot more Derricks,” said Kyli Evans.
A lot more Derricks just waiting for someone to open their heart and let them in.
Check out other Giggybytes: