13-Year-Old Secretly Buys Mom a Car in Exchange for Xbox

Controllers for Microsoft's Xbox One console is shown front and center with older-generation controllers behind it, in this file photo. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

A 13-year-old Nevada boy bought his mother a car after he saw her struggling to make ends meet and with no transportation.

William Preston, who is described by his mother as a “lawn-mowing, yard-cleaning, money-making machine,” spotted a woman selling a 1999 Chevrolet Metro on Facebook.

“It was really cheap,” he told KOLO. “So I asked her if I could trade the X-box or earn it, and at first she said no and after she thought about it, then she said yes.”

Krystal Preston, his mom, is a single mother who lives in Fernley, Nevada, with her three kids and three dogs after having to start from scratch.

She had no idea what her son was up to.

He had only told her he had a job to do.

“I allowed him to go assuming it was like any other time,” she wrote in a Facebook post on March 24. “Well this time was different. Very different.”

When he returned, he told her, “Mom I bought you a car.”

“I of course laughed and told him, ‘ya right!’,” she wrote.

“He said, ‘No mom I’m so serious I bought you a car, come on, we have to go.’”

Confused and skeptical, she was ushered by her son into a car with a lady who was waiting on the front yard.

“I’m still thinking at this point [it’s] still a joke. We pull up to this house and William says ’mom that’s your car.'”

At that point, as she realized it was real, she “completely lost it.”

“I started balling my eyes out,” she wrote.

“He did some work for this women and that was his payment that he worked out with her.”

“I was handed the keys and paperwork to the car and I’m freaking out but so in shock like OMG this is happening right now.”

His act of kindness had been inspired by social media.

“I saw on YouTube where people get their mom a car and then surprise her with it,” he told KOLO. “I wanted to do that.”

After posting her story to Facebook, it was picked up by a local radio station, 101.3 FM Biggest Little Radio.

The town of Fernley, Nevada. Screenshot/Googlemaps

An aerial image of Fernley, Nevada. Screenshot/Googlemaps

“I did not by any means think that the next morning I was going to have a radio crew at my front door and it kind of goes from there,” she told KOLO.

But William told KOLO he didn’t do it for the publicity.

“I didn’t really want that to happen, I just wanted to do it, that’s all,” William said.

“I am so proud of my son,” wrote Preston. “He is such a good kid. He may have his days but OMG what 13-year-old kid do you know that buys his mom a car?”

“William I love you son and thank you. You have such a big heart and I love you.”