A Boy’s Favorite Garbageman Is Retiring. How He Says Goodbye Went Viral (Exclusive)

• Ever since Catherine Carrigan’s son Noah was 5, he was interested in garbage trucks and would wait for the garbageman.
• When he heard his favorite garbageman was retiring, he ran outside to give him a proper send-off.
• The video of the interaction went viral on TikTok, amassing 3.4 million views.

In every other neighborhood, it was just another Tuesday. But in a small community in Sarasota, Fla., it was a special day, as it was the community garbageman’s last day. For Noah Carrigan, that meant saying goodbye to the person he waited for every week for years. 

Catherine Carrigan shares with PEOPLE exclusively that since her son Noah was 5 years old, he has always been interested in garbage trucks. He would set out his bins around the house and play, pretending to pick up trash. 

Noah had garbage day shirts and garbage toys, all of which were comical to Carrigan, as her husband, Noah’s father, is a fireman. Despite thinking Noah would be interested in fire trucks, Carrigan shares that Noah loves everything garbageman-related, including saying hi to his favorite garbageman. 

On garbage days, Carrigan’s husband would take Noah around the community in a golf cart to follow the truck and watch the garbageman pick up trash.

“It was a weekly thing, and he would look out for it,” Carrigan shares. “He would get excited. He would run out there, and the garbageman would always give him the time of day, honk the horn, and say, ‘Hey buddy.’ ”

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Noah would wait every week to see his friend, the garbageman. This was a ritual for the boy for four years. That fateful Tuesday was the last Tuesday their longtime garbageman would do the garbage route, and Noah wanted to make it memorable.  

“It was like saying goodbye to a part of his childhood. Noah had gifts. He wrote him a note and put it in the toy bin he used to play with. We gave him the toy bin, the truck, the note, and a gift card Noah got for his birthday. He wanted to put it in there. It was all him,” Carrigan recalls. “He wanted to show his appreciation. I asked him how he felt while waiting for him to come by. He said, mixed; he was excited to see him, but you could tell he also felt sad that it was goodbye, but it was hard for him to process that.”

Carrigan shares that when the garbageman pulled up on the garbage truck, he talked to Noah and told him that he was getting so big. They shared a few words, and Noah gave him his gifts. Carrigan shared the relationship on TikTok, and the video went viral, amassing 3.4 million views. In the video, Noah says goodbye to his garbageman one last time and hands him the gifts.

“Noah has such an appreciation for somebody who took the time out for him and was so kind,” Carrigan shares. “We’re just grateful for him for being such a positive influence on his childhood.”