Motherhood began with a sweet miracle for one mom, who experienced the joy of giving birth in the most unexpected place — a Krispy Kreme parking lot. On January 22, 2025, in the midst of a rare winter storm in Alabama, a baby boy named Dallas was born as his parents, Sha’nya Bennett and Keon Mitchell, were still enroute to the hospital.
The journey to the hospital was met with challenges as the storm made the roads impassable, with up to 11 inches of snow accumulating in some parts of the state. However, in a remarkable turn of events, the little miracle baby arrived safely in the family’s car outside the Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in Dothan, Alabama.
During the birth, Sha’nya and Keon were only a mile away from Flowers Hospital, speaking to 911 on the phone. “With the roads being icy (and) the snow on the ground, it made it a longer drive. We were headed to the hospital, and we didn’t make it. My water ended up breaking in the car and Dallas started sliding out,” Bennett told USA TODAY.
She began to feel her son’s head crowning while they were at the stop light beside Krispy Kreme so Mitchell, Dallas’ father, pulled over and successfully delivered his son in the parking lot with the help of the 911 operator. The couple’s four-year-old son, Legend, was in the backseat for the whole event.
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Bennett said, “I didn’t know what was going on. It just felt like I was in a movie; we’ve never experienced anything like that. So it was, it was a panic.”
According to People Magazine, Krispy Kreme was closed due to the weather, but once the manager learned about Sha’nya and Keon’s unexpected parking lot delivery, the bakery chain decided to make this memorable birth even sweeter. The manager of the Krispy Kreme planned gifted the family free Krispy Kreme doughnuts for a year, and offered to host Dallas’s birthday — every year until adulthood.
“[…] Krispy Kreme is sweetening the family’s a-glaze-ing celebration by throwing Dallas a birthday party every year until he’s all grown up! ” the spokesperson said in a statement.
In recognition of this extraordinary birth, Krispy Kreme has also reported that, to their knowledge, Dallas’ birth certificate is the first to list the doughnut chain as the “place of birth.” This charming detail adds an extra layer of sweetness to Dallas’ story, making it a treasured memory for years to come.
