VIDEO: California Police Chief Buys Homeless Family a Car

A down-on-their-luck family will have a new car this holiday season thanks to the generosity of the head of the Marysville Police Department in Northern California.

Chief Aaron Easton first learned that the struggling and homeless Conn family needed a vehicle through social media, KTLA sister station KTXL reported.

Jessica Conn had posted about her family's misfortune recently on Facebook, writing that the transmission of their dying Saturn gave out as it came to a stop in front of the man's house who had offered to sell his old car at a deeply discounted price. The family still couldn't afford the Nissan.

But the Conns were about to get a big holiday gift from Easton, who saw the post and decided he wanted to do something to help, after first checking with his children.

"I asked them, 'Are you OK with losing this from your guys' Christmas fund for your presents to help this family out?'" Easton said. "And I was very proud that each one individually without hesitation said, 'Yeah absolutely, yeah, let's do this.'"

The police chief's compassionate gesture came as his own family was going through a difficult time, according to KTXL. His wife Sarah had died about three months earlier.

Timothy Conn was extremely grateful to Easton. He said he has been particularly worried about his two young daughters, ages 7 and 8, who have had to walk 2.5 miles to school each day for the past two weeks. The family had fallen on tough times in the past three years. They have been staying in a heated RV parked in the Yuba River bottoms, according to KTXL.

"Aaron has restored my faith in believing in fate -- fate and faith," Conn said. "His mom and dad raised an awesome, awesome man."