When David Hove set up his baked goods business called The Hove Delights for the day at the end of August, he had no idea he would witness the goodness of humanity, but first, he would have to experience some of the bad ones.
On August 27, David, who just turned 11, had set up his table outside his Toronto home and planned to sell lemon blueberry cookies made by his sister and business partner, 15-year-old Kimberly Hove. He was only selling that day because while Kimberly does the baking, David does the sales.
They both started their own business out of their home to earn money for electronics they both wanted to buy: Kimberly wanted to get an iPhone, and David set his first goal as an Xbox.
“I was selling packages and then I had to use the bathroom, so I went in and bought my boxes and the cash register,” David told TODAY Food. “When I came back out, it was all gone.”
David first told his mother about the items he was missing from his setup, which included a folding table, a cooler, a water bottle and even some tin foil sitting on the table.
“I was upset. I thought it was my fault,” he said.
The only thing the thief didn’t steal was the stand’s handwritten sign that read “Homemade Lemon Blueberry Scones $3.50 each” and another with the stand’s social media handles taped to the table out front to be taken.
“When we looked at the footage, we saw that it was actually stolen,” Kimberly told TODAY. “We didn’t know before because we didn’t see it. But we have cameras.”
Kimberly and David’s mother watched their home’s security video to see how the table had been taken in broad daylight. In it, a man in sunglasses pulls up in a white SUV, opens its trunk and steals the items. The man appears to have a child in the back seat as well.
After their father, also named David, came home and learned about the robbery, he decided to take action. Instead of filing a police report, the patriarch took the video to local journalists in hopes of finding the culprit.
“It breaks my heart to see my kids go through this,” he said in an interview with CTV News Toronto. “They came up with the initiative to do something, working hard for themselves … but it’s teaching them life lessons.”
The father later asks the man caught on video to return the items, which so far has not happened. Instead, their community, first local, then more widespread, came for it. Neighbors David Ricci and his wife, Elizabeth Aiello, came a few days after the incident and donated a new cooler, table and $20, putting Hove Delights back in business.
“It was a little slow at first, but a few days later, the police came because they saw our story,” Kimberly said, adding that after that, the Hove family started getting a lot more support. “David and I, we were very surprised at the support. There are bigger issues, obviously, than our cooler and our things getting stolen, but people wanted to help. And our community was so supportive.”
“They are very nice, kind and wonderful. People are very generous,” said David (the young man). “They always give me advice.”
Over time, word had spread further and people have reached out to help David, Kimberly and the rest of the family in any way they can. Kimberly said that after R. Michael McWhorter, who goes by @TizzyEnt on social media, shared the story on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, people outside of Canada started screaming to help them.
Several people even tried to start a GoFundMe for the couple, which they declined because, as Kimberly said, they want to earn the money themselves.
The Hove family told CTV News in a follow-up interview that a representative from Stadia Glass and Door, a local Toronto business, stopped by one afternoon to deliver the Xbox gaming system David was saving up to buy. But that doesn’t mean David or Kimberly will be hanging up their aprons just yet.
“People have reached out internationally, but we can’t sell to them yet,” Kimberly said. “We’re still trying to figure it out.”
Kimberly is still saving and hoping for the newest iPhone as they work weekends during the school year, mostly running local pre-orders that can be picked up. She said it’s no big deal whether she’ll be able to get an iPhone 14 or not — a 12 would do just fine, she said. Now that David has an Xbox, he’s aiming for a new goal: an item he can’t even use for a few years.
“A car,” he said. “Like a Honda or something.”
