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Towing Company Surprises Boys With Shopping Spree After Loss Of Mom

CHICAGO (CBS) -- This Christmas won't be the same for two Chicago boys after their mother was shot and killed last month, but the owner of a towing company helped make their holiday a little brighter on Friday.

This is the second year in a row that Earl Walker of W&W Towing has provided children with a Wal-Mart shopping spree.

"I can only imagine what it would feel like to lose a parent, let alone a mom," Walker said. "So when I heard about it, I definitely had to step in. As business owners, I feel that it's our duty to do things like this within the community that we serve."

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Artez and Arnez Catchings fill up a Wal-Mart shopping cart with gifts for themselves thanks to a shopping spree provided by W&W Towing. (WBBM/Andy Dahn)

Strolling through the aisles of the Wal-Mart on South Stewart and filling up a cart with a new Xbox, Nerf Guns and iPhones were 10- and 11-year-old Artez and Arnez Catchings.

"Our mom would have been proud," they said. "She'd be happy that we are happy."

Their mom was 30-year-old Sharine Catchings, found shot to death in her car on the Far South Side in November. Chicago Police have ruled her death a homicide, no arrests have been made.

As special as the day was for the boys, their grandmother said it meant the world to her, and would have meant the world to her daughter.

"I just miss my baby," she said. "She'd be running around talking like 'Mama, I don't know what I'm going to get those boys, they just like me.' So thank you all."

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