'Is this garbage?' Couple accidentally throws out Christmas presents

Yellowknife grandmother Joni Walker spent weeks getting Christmas presents for everyone on her list, but there are no presents under her tree — because she accidentally threw them all out.

"We were putting other stuff into big garbage bags, and my husband asked: 'is this garbage?'" Walker said.

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"I was busy and just glanced over and said 'yes,' and in it went. It wasn't until a week later we realized that we did it and realized it was gone."

Her husband took the bag to his business on Old Airport Road and threw it into a dumpster.

That bag, Walker says, contained between $300 and $400 worth of clothes, movies and toys for her three children and eight grandchildren.

A lucky find for someone

Walker has already returned to Mark's Work Warehouse in Yellowknife — where she had purchased most of the clothes — to start replacing the tossed gifts. When an employee heard what happened, they offered her their employee discount.

Luckily for those on Walker's Christmas list, she still has a bit of time to replace the presents before the big day.

She still has hope that a salvager at the dump will make a big find, though the landfill manager says that's unlikely.

"We're just hoping that somebody found it because they're not going to know who it belonged to and they'll be able to make use of it.

"That would be nice."