After a year of scouring eBay and other auction sites, a Waterloo, Ont. man was able to track down and buy his mother her dream car.
Corey Wadden's mother lost her job two and a half years ago and had to give up her car last year because it was falling into disrepair.
She couldn't afford a new one, so Wadden secretly saved up to buy her the car she'd always wanted: a 1973 Saab 99 EMS.
Why a copper-coloured 1973 Saab 99 EMS? Wadden told CTV Kitchener his mother used to clean houses for a living, and one of her clients owned the same car. The client used to ask her to move the car for him while she was cleaning, and she fell in love with it, Wadden said.
After six months of looking, Wadden's friend found a similar vehicle on eBay, and Wadden reached out to the seller.
The man selling the vehicle had a collection of Saabs in California, and one was the exact make, model, colour and year he was looking for.
Wadden said it took him another six months to get the car, but "surprising her with it made it all worthwhile."
Wadden told his mother she was being filmed for a documentary he was making, and told her to meet him outside of her apartment building.
In the video, Wadden and his mother Joanie pause on the stairs, and he tells her he has an envelope that came in the mail for her.
She opens the envelope and finds a set of keys and a photo of the car.
With a confused smile, she says to her son, "What the [expletive]?" He leads her outside to the car. His mother sees the car, starts laughing and crying and falls to the ground, shouting, "You're kidding me!"
She bursts into tears and hugs her son, then runs to look at the car. As she examines the vehicle, a message pops up saying, "Do one nice thing for your parents today. It doesn't have to be big. Give them a call and let them know how much they mean to you."
The video was posted to YouTube on Aug. 11, where it has been viewed more than 3.5 million times.
