14 DAY TRIAL // A 911 operator in Kent, Washington got a frantic call from a woman reporting a robbery – her dress had been stolen on her wedding day.
Candice, an employee with Valley Communications, answered the call from the South King County bride.
She was loading packages into her car in Kent, and taking several trips from her house to the vehicle, when someone snagged the dress.
She called 911 desperate on Sunday, since the theft took place in the morning, and she was supposed to get married that evening.
“I finally figured out what was going on, and asked when the ceremony was scheduled. [...] When she said 'today,' my heart broke in two for her,” Candice tells the News Tribune of Tacoma.
“All through the call I was thinking, ‘I have a dress …’” she remembers.
Candice and her husband Brandon had their wedding just 18 months before, and she offered to lend her the dress.
With the permission of her supervisor, she sent a photo of herself wearing the dress to a police officer who showed it to the bride. She needed to see if it would fit her.
“Candice is an extraordinary person. [...] She had something someone else needed, and she made it happen,” her supervisor praises her.
“I understood completely. [...] This was such a special day for her, something she’d thought of her whole life,” Candice explains.
She left a message for her parents asking them to call her at work, which was very unusual. She is not allowed to take personal calls.
“It said ‘Emergency! Call me.’ and gave her number at the 911 center. [...] We’d never called her there before. She can’t even take a cell phone into the center.
“My first thought was that my father had died. [...] We called and the first thing Candice said was ‘everything is alright. Where’s my wedding dress?’” father Calvin Luce says.