Boy Obsessed With Trash Cans Gets Christmas Surprise from Local Garbage Men

— -- Unlike most kids this Christmas, 4-year-old Jobiah Wells didn't wish for toys. Instead, Santa brought him the one gift he truly wanted: new trash cans from the local garbage men.

"It started when he was real young, before he was 2," mom Rachael Dick Well of Folsom, California told ABC News. "He was always cheering them [the garbage men] on and waving. Eventually, he started pulling all the cans out to the street, even the neighbors'.

"Somewhere in there, he developed a relationship with the drivers and would meet them religiously at the curb," she added. "It's really sweet."

Wells, a mom of four, said her son Jobiah took a liking to helping out the city's sanitation workers as soon as he was able to walk.

Now, she said, Jobiah's love for sanitation has become an act of service, where he curbs each garbage can for the neighbors living on his family's street.

"It's an obsession and we have to go and tell him its not his job everywhere," Wells said, laughing. "He's really into his trash cans, he loves the drivers, and all the neighbors have gotten really into it."

Aaron Wilson, a sanitation worker for the City of Folsom and one of the two men who work the Wells' block, said he is flattered that little Jobiah considers them hometown heroes.

"Garbage men aren't always considered top-notch guys, a lot of time they are considered a joke," Wilson said. "I don't feel that way myself, but when you see a little boy look to you like your something special and you're just trying to do your job, it makes you feel good. It's great how all the neighbors are supporting it and they know they cant bring their can out, Jobiah has to do it...it's a part of his job."

Instead of asking for toys this Christmas, Well said Jobiah wished for new trash cans to be set outside his home.

"We passed it off like 'Oh, all he ever wants is trash cans,'" she said. "I took a video because no one would believe me."

Well said she called the city and told them about her son's unique holiday wish.

Then on Christmas morning, she said, Jobiah's buddy Wilson and his fellow garbage man Cliff Kallis delivered four, brand new, blue cans wrapped in big, red bows.

"It was the highlight of the day," Wells said. "People don't recognize that these drivers are great people with really big hearts. He [Jobiah] proudly had his cans presented in our driveway for the next few days. Its just really sweet.

"My favorite line that Jobiah said was 'I pull up all the cans because it makes people happy,'" she added, "That in a nut shell is what it is. He does it because he likes making people happy."