Fast food cruising.
A Minnesota fast food employee who walked four miles each day to his jobs at Dairy Queen and Chipotle and never took a day off was gifted a car from his “angels.”
Rodolfo Depaz, a cashier in the Roseville, Minn. community, is cruising in style in his own 2000 Buick Century after commuting to both of his jobs on foot for over three years, according to KARE.
“They’re angels for me,” Depaz said.
Depaz, an father-of-two from El Salvador and in the US on a work visa, spends little of his earnings on himself, choosing to pay off his rent and send the rest back home to his family.
He “works 80 hour weeks and sends money home and pays bills here and back home in El Salvador, leaving him with nearly nothing after every paycheck,” Depaz’s former coworker Emily Hinderscheid wrote on GoFundMe.
Because he doesn’t save his extra earnings, Depaz doesn’t have enough to buy a car and has to walk to work each day.
On a typical morning, Depaz would wake up before 5:30 a.m. and make the long trek from his home to the Chipotle he worked at for his morning shift, according to the outlet.
He would then clock out at 2:30 p.m. and journey across town to the Dairy Queen for the afternoon shift.
Depaz totaled approximately four and a half miles between his two jobs and home, according to KARE.
“Always walking,” he said.
Hinderscheid believes Depaz works more than 80 hours a week because he picks up weekend shifts. Depaz befriended Hinderscheid and her family, who invited him over for dinner and gifted him with a bike to commute to work.
Depaz’s friendship with the Hinderscheids expanded when he was invited to family outings and holidays, eventually being welcomed to Mike’s bible study group, where one member gifted him the life-changing present.
“Just said, thank you God for listening to me,” Depaz said.
The Dairy Queen franchisee owner called their employee a hard worker and has set Depaz up with an attorney to help start the legal process of getting his family to the US.
“He is a very, very, hard worker,” Todd Nelson, the franchisee director of operations, said, unable to remember a time Depaz called out sick. “It’s snowing out, people driving cars are calling in late to work, and there’s Rodolfo, here on time.”
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