California man who lost enormous movie collection in fire receives hundreds of DVDs from strangers

DVDs.
(Image credit: iStockphoto)

When a wildfire quickly approached their house in Oroville, California, earlier this month, the Orsillo family had just a few minutes to grab some valuables and escape to safety.

Mark Orsillo, 34, has been collecting movies for years, and his sister, Danielle Devine, grabbed trash bags and started throwing in as many DVDs as she could. She was only able to save about 20 of his more than 300 movies, and when Orsillo, who has Down syndrome, found out the fire destroyed his home and all of the movies left behind, he was devastated. "He was really struggling," Devine told CBS News. "He's usually so happy all the time. I felt bad I didn't grab more."

Devine shared on Facebook what happened, and asked friends and family if they'd be interested in sending him a few movies. The post went viral within just a few hours, and a delighted Orsillo received 400 DVDs by the next day. "He's probably going to have more movies than he had before," Devine said. As an added bonus, strangers have also rallied to help their parents, bringing in more than $10,000 to help them rebuild their house.

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Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.