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While many Suffolk children were busy getting candy on Halloween, two kids decided to give some of their own to a house that was out.

During their trick-or-treat stop, Marie Hart’s two children, Charles and Dela’Mae, decided to give candy to an empty bowl owned by Kyle Hockensmith. Hockensmith was taken aback by their generosity and, after seeing the footage on his Ring Camera while out with his own children trick-or-treating, shared it on social media. During two separate Nov. 4 interviews, Hart and Hockensmith both shared their sides of the heartwarming moment. Hart says she and her kids were going from house to house when they approached Hockensmith’s house.

“I was actually shouting from the car – which they didn’t even hear me – ‘You better not be grabbing a handful, they have a Ring Camera!” and all I saw was handfuls of candy out of their hand, I didn’t even think it was coming out of their bag to be honest with you,” Hart said. “And when they came up, I was like, ‘Y’all took like, one piece of candy, right?’ Then my daughter was like, ‘No mom, they had no candy, so we just took ours and put it in there.’ I was like, ‘You did not,’ and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we did.’ And we went on with our night. I didn’t think anything of it.”

Hockensmith, a single parent, says he was not able to fully participate in the Halloween tradition at his own house.

“So I left a note saying, ‘Out with my kids trick-or-treating, Happy Halloween! Please take one or two or three pieces of candy.’ So I bought maybe two bags of candy, not thinking that the neighborhood was going to have as many children as it did,” Hockensmith said.

Checking his Ring Camera periodically to “see how the candy flow’s going,” Hockensmith says he looked at the camera around 7 p.m. and saw both of Hart’s children put candy back in the empty bowl. 

“I went to the people I was with, I was with my mom and the neighborhood people in Virginia Beach. And I was like, ‘Check this out!’ It’s unbelievable [what] these two children…did to replenish the candy bowl that was empty for the other trick-or-treaters,” he said. “I thought it was pretty remarkable. So I posted it that night on Facebook, and then it just spread like wildfire throughout the social media locally.”

Hart says she saw the footage the very next morning from one of her co-workers.

“And she’s like, ‘Is this your kids?’ And I was like, ‘No way.’ But honestly, my kids are always like that. They’re so giving and caring, they would literally give their shirt off their back if they had to if they saw someone in need. And that’s just who they are as a person, like both of them and I’m so lucky to even be able to say, I’m their mom,” Hart said. “…I mean that neighborhood that we went to, by the end of the night, they still had almost a full bag of candy trick-or-treating.”

Hart reflected on the “proud mama moment” when she asked her kids why they gave their candy away for the empty bowl.

“I asked them, ‘Well, you didn’t have to do that. You could have just walked away.’ They’re like ‘Well no, we had plenty of candy to give out.’ And they were like, ‘What if a little kid came up? I didn’t want them to be disappointed.’ And I was like, ‘Aww, that is so sweet.’”

Hockensmith says he reached out to Hart to thank her kids for their good deed, where she reached back out to him the next day.

“…her kids are around the same age as my kids. So it worked out really well that I was able to give them a bag of candy that they really didn’t need to fill my bowl with back,” Hockensmith said. “So that was nice. I was able to do something for the kids because of their kindness and generosity that they shared.” 

ikewise, Hockensmith said it was a “teachable moment for any child.”

“You see a lot of Facebook posts or TikToks or Instagram [posts] of children taking candy and taking the whole bowl of candy and throwing it in their bag. You never really see the children giving back,” he said. “So it was really nice to see something not negative in light, but definitely a positive outcome to a situation.”

Hart shared what she hopes people would take away from her own children’s kind hearts.

“That kindness doesn’t cost the thing. It helps people more than anything. So to see them, and I mean, they’re kids, to just willingly give up something that most kids are just like ‘I’m not giving you my candy,’” Hart said. “I hope that they take it as there’s still kindness in the world and it doesn’t hurt to still give it. No matter how ugly someone is towards you, you still be kind to them, no matter what.”