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We asked Carey Fruth to meet us outside the Rent the Runway store in San Francisco's Union Square neighborhood. She had no idea what was in store for her, but within minutes of entering the women's designer clothing and accessories rental service showroom, the reason became clear.
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"On behalf of Rent the Runway, we want to thank you for being such a great Samaritan and an honest person! We want to gift you with the ultimate dream closet and give you a year of free Unlimited Subscription," the store leader Sophia Verville said.
Carey is stunned.
"Oh my gosh thank you, I just want to hug you! I think it's amazing. I love style but I live in San Francisco so I usually get my clothes from Ross or a thrift store so this is a dream come true!"
So what brought us all together in the first place? The answer-- a large cardboard box, filled to the brim with nearly $15,000 worth of gowns, handbags, jewelry that about 50 women had rented and returned. The box, soggy from the rain and beaten up from being kicked around had been tossed onto the street in front of her house near the Leigon of Honor.
Carey had no idea what it was.
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After searching through the contents, on a whim, Carey discovered one of my dresses inside. She found a small address label attached to a bag inside.
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"So I decided to look you up on Facebook. I thought, oh my gosh she's going to want this back! I reached out to you and my friends all said it was very creepy, me telling you I have something with your address on it!"
When Rent the Runway learned of Carey's good deeds, they instantly started brainstorming on what they could do to thank her.
"Any person in San Francisco could have easily kept those items for themselves or turned them around to try and sell them. So for her to even go to great lengths like she did reaching out to you, taking time out of her personal life to make sure the owner of these items were found-- my initial thought was, wow, what a special person."
Rent the Runway stylist Kendyl Bell, clad in a long shimmering silver dress and expensive-looking earrings, wasted no time whisking Carey through the store, searching for different outfits for her to take home. Outfit after outfit gets tried on and "ooh-ed" over in the dressing room. Both women seem over the moon.
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"I love it, I feel like a million bucks! This is like a dream dress for me," says Carey as she twirls in a black lace gown.
The selections she takes home as her rentals, total up to nearly $2,500 retail.
This gift comes as a blessing in more ways than one. Carey, a freelance photographer who specialized in body positive photography to make "women feel beautiful and appreciated" recently had to scale back her business because of high overhead in San Francisco.
Carey says being outfitted with such beautiful clothes has given her a new outlook.
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"I feel like this gift is going to give me the confidence I need to get back into that and I really appreciate it. I don't want to cry!"
According to Rent the Runway, the average renter on an unlimited plan rents $50,000 worth of clothes a year. To learn more about Rent the Runway go here and to check out Carey's photography business, go here.