Lincoln garbage men go viral for dressing up as 'Frozen' characters on the job

LINCOLN, R.I. (WJAR) — A video that shows three men from Lincoln dressed up for Halloween has gone viral.

Mitchell Shallcross, Colby Laferriere, and Angel Vargas are employed by the town of Lincoln in the sanitation department.

The three of them work together as garbage men, and on their Friday route they decided to switch things up a bit.

"It was one day before Halloween and we knew there were a lot of kids on our Friday route and we wanted to do something fun and kind of festive," said Laferriere. "About a month before Halloween we had the idea to do frozen characters and it just so happened it was snowing that day it worked out great."

From about 7a.m. to about 11 a.m. in the snow, the group wore costumes from the Disney movie "Frozen" and ran their regular route.

"Our co-workers, yeah they were shocked when we came in with it on but everyone thought it was fun everyone thought it was cool," said Laferriere. "Everyone loves Frozen and we knew it would make kids smile."

"The kids, it was good to do something for them," said Shallcross. "When we drove past the bus stops a lot of kids they thought it was funny, they were laughing, they were clapping a lot of thumbs up."

The group drove by Jamal Burley's home, too.

The Lincoln resident and father of two said he heard his wife laughing while she looked out of a window.

"I hear my wife laughing in the window and then I'm like, 'What's going on?' She's like, 'Anna is outside.' I'm like, 'What?' She's like, 'Yeah, Anna from Frozen is outside.' I’m like, 'What do you mean?' She says, 'The trash men are dressed up in costumes.'"

Burley, who's a professional wedding photographer alongside his wife, grabbed his cell phone and began taking a video.

It shows Anna and Elsa, Laferriere and Shallcross, holding onto the garbage truck while riding alongside it in their costumes. The truck stops, they get out and throw the garbage in and Olaf, Vargas, comes around the corner.

"I'm just recording them and then all the sudden Olaf pops out and I lost it," said Burley. "When we first saw them, we thought it would be hilarious if there was someone for Olaf, little did we know he was driving the truck." Burley posted the video on his Facebook and Instagram page "Jamalandlashanaphoto."

From there, it went viral. It's been viewed more than two-hundred thousand times and has more than 10,000 shares.

"I just thought it was hilarious. Anything I find funny I post on social media and I think it's cool they have a job where they can do something like that and have a little fun," said Burley. "I feel like this is a good laugh, everyone needs everyone needs to laugh, life is too serious at times to not find humor in things."

The garbage men said since the video has gone viral people have been reaching out expressing praise about it.

"It's great I'm glad someone was able to capture it other than the people that just saw us," said Laferriere.

"It just made it that much better knowing they were watching," added Shallcross. "As long as we made one person's day, that’s all that mattered by doing the whole thing."