In Lisbon, Ohio, 73-year-old Gary Phillips was a regular customer at Dunkin’ Donuts. Every day he would come in and order the vanilla Coolatta… with 6 extra pumps of vanilla beans… before finally starting to take it easy, and cutting it down to 5 extra pumps.
He was a nice guy, a sweet older man who everyone enjoyed seeing… every day. And then, one day in March, Gary didn’t show up at his normal time. He had just lost his wife last summer, and his birthday was coming up, and some of the employees told him to come in a day early for a little celebration. And one of the young women said she would even bake him a cake. But Gary wasn’t there when he should have been. And then a few more days passed. And he still had not shown up.
Employees Megan Schriner and Danielle Hastings were extremely worried. Megan, who was working, called Danielle, since she lived close to Gary, and asked if she would go to his house and check on him… and immediately Danielle did just that. She got no answer at his door, then she passed his window, and Gary spoke out to her, saying he was lying on the floor and could not get up. She texted Megan about it, and Megan quickly asked for and received permission from her supervisor to leave.
In the meantime, Danielle called 911. When emergency units responded, they removed an air conditioner and had Megan, now on the scene, crawl through the window and unlock the door. Gary was on the living room floor in a very confused state. He was then quickly taken to the hospital. The next day, his birthday, both Megan and Danielle visited him in his hospital room, offering birthday wishes and well wishes, so he can come back for another vanilla Coolatta with 5 extra pumps of vanilla beans.