The Great Garbage Can Escape

There are certain things you don’t expect to lose on a road trip. Sunglasses. A travel mug. Your patience two weeks before Christmas. All understandable.

A full-size rolling garbage can packed to the brim with Christmas gifts, however, is not.

Earlier this month, Cowley residents Derik and Amber Rasmussen found themselves asking a question few families ever say out loud:

“Did our garbage can fall off the truck?”

The trip that started it all was an ordinary Saturday run to Billings. Christmas shopping. Basement-renovation supplies. A tub, a vanity, a sink, a toilet. The truck was full but carefully loaded. One of the last items wedged into place was a brand-new dark gray garbage can, stuffed tight with winter essentials and gifts: snow pants, gloves, scarves, ice cleats and a trio of sports balls.

The can was heavy and secured with an orange bungee cord “like a belt,” Derik later said. Fog, rain, darkness and winter roads kept the family driving cautiously home. Nothing rattled. Nothing shifted.

Until the next day.

After unloading was postponed, the realization hit hard. The garbage can was gone.

“Once we realized what was missing, our stomachs just dropped,” Amber said. “It wasn’t just a garbage can. It was Christmas.”

By Sunday evening, Amber turned to Facebook, posting in local classifieds and community pages asking if anyone had seen a gray garbage can along Highway 310, described as being “full of Christmas” and strapped with an orange bungee cord.

The response was immediate and very Wyoming.

People shared. People checked ditches on their daily commute. Surveillance footage was reviewed in Laurel and Bridger. Walmart was officially cleared. The Sinclair in Bridger checked cameras and called back. Derik even confirmed the can was still in the truck when he left Bridger.

The search narrowed. Somewhere between Bridger and home, a garbage can had gone rogue.

Then came the breakthrough.

A post appeared on the Greybull Page asking if anyone had lost something between Billings and Frannie. A photo followed. Screenshots spread. Machelle Cook Moore connected the dots, and soon one sentence lit up comment sections across the basin:

“I got ahold of her, and it’s our garbage can!”

The answer, it turned out, involved fog, Facebook, Highway 310 and two strangers who just happened to be paying attention.

“My boyfriend and I were headed back from Billings when we saw a nice-looking trash bin sitting in the ditch just before Frannie,” said Bryce Channel. But things changed once Bryce and her boyfriend, Daymon Nitchman, opened the lid. “We realized these were probably Christmas gifts,” Bryce said. “So we knew we had to find whoever lost it.

“We loaded it up and took it home.”

They posted on Facebook Marketplace asking for someone to describe the bin before claiming it. Before long, Bryce’s post was flooded with screenshots of Amber’s original plea.

Information was exchanged, and the next day Amber’s father-in-law, Brent, picked it up. By then most items had already been repurchased, though a few duplicates were returned. A reward was offered and politely refused.

“They wouldn’t take a dime,” Amber said. “They were just happy to help.”

For all the headlines that suggest otherwise, the world is still full of decent people. Folks who stop. Folks who post. Folks who do the right thing without expecting anything in return.

Sometimes a rogue garbage can is exactly what we need this time of year, a small reminder that even when something goes missing, it can find its way home again, bringing back a little faith in humanity and the true meaning of Christmas.