CARROLLTON, Va. - Katie Boutwell says she recently woke up freezing in the wee morning hours inside her Isle of Wight home.

“I got more clothes on myself because I was going to bed. I got a robe on and a sweater on - about two or three things. Then I started covering him, so he’d stay over," Boutwell said, referring to her husband.

The day before - the couple's furnace malfunctioned and their old space heater kept turning off.

Not sure what else to do, she dialed 911.

“I thought – maybe there was some emergency something set up, that maybe a gas person could come out on an emergency call --- I don’t know what I was doing," Katie explained.

No heating and gas crews could get to their home.

Instead, Isle of Wight County Sheriff's Deputy Jeremy Hall stopped by to check on the couple.

By the time he arrived, the temperature in the home was in the 50s.

What happened next left the couple in tears.

"He said 'I’m going now but I will be back later'. He rang the doorbell and I went and here comes this wonderful young man with a heater and two electric blankets. I was amazed. I cried," Katie said.

The Isle of Wight County Sheriff's Office said Deputy Hall paid for the items out of his own pocket.

The Boutwells tried to repay him, but he refused.

They're now planning to donate to a charity of his choice.