MINNESOTA NICE: Newborn baby, broken furnace, free repair

WILLMAR, Minn. (KMSP) - A Willmar, Minnesota family says bringing home their second baby was stress-free thanks to the kindness of a local company.

Jesse and Maria Hulscher were panicked when their furnace stopped working Feb. 23, the day after their son Adler was born.

“Instantly I panicked,” Jesse said. “I have a two-year-old here, a newborn coming home in a couple days and this was before the big potential snow storm.”

Maria was still in the hospital with Adler when Jesse called Magnuson Sheet Metal hoping for a quick, inexpensive fix.

“He said ‘the fan's not working, the furnace isn’t working, my wife is in the hospital, we just had a baby yesterday,’” Magnuson co-owner Craig Aurand recalled. “I just said take it easy, we’ll be right there.”

Jesse said he was just happy they were able to come out so quickly, fixing the problem in only an hour. The father of two never expected the surprise he got when the invoice came in the mail.

“I opened it up and looked at the receipt and it said, ‘no charge, take care of the new baby,’” Jesse recalled. “I was like, what? No. This can’t be real. And he’s like, 'I know I can’t believe it either,'” Maria said.

Aurand has been known to forgive small bills on holidays or for families in need, but he says he never does it for the publicity.

“We didn’t do it for the PR, we just did it to be good people. That’s it. Just to be nice to these people,” he said. “That’s what this is about.”