Boy Uses Allowance to Payoff Layaway Balances for Strangers
The trend of the secret Santa has spread to Pennsylvania as more people continue paying off layaway balances for strangers.
Employees at a Kmart in Collier Township, Pa., are calling the generous shoppers who use their own money to help others purchase gifts, "layaway angels."
One angel was a boy who used his allowance to help pay off a random shopper’s layaway balance.
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Employees told WTAE News the boy gave them $40, the equivalent of eight weeks worth of his allowance, to pay off toys on layaway. The boy's mother contributed another $30.
"We just couldn't believe it. We just started crying. We said, 'Thank you, so much.' He was just so happy that he could help out the less fortunate," Kmart employee Niki Dawson told WTAE news.
Dawson estimated the boy was between eight and 10 years old.
"He just had a smile on his face, and we just couldn't believe it. Me and the other worker back there were crying, you know. Just couldn't believe it that someone that little came in with his generosity and paid off an unfortunate person's layaway," said Dawson, according to WTAE.
Jackie Guthrie, another Kmart employee, met one father whose layaway debt was cleared by the boy’s generosity.
"He says, 'I'm just so overwhelmed about the whole thing.' He says, 'I have three little ones at home,' and he was actually in tears. I mean, he had tears in his eyes. It was just amazing," Guthrie told WTAE.
Since Saturday, that same Kmart has had close to two-dozen cases of "layaway angels.”
"Just trying to be a good guy," said one angel, who told WTAE he wanted to remain anonymous. "Just trying to help. I've been blessed my entire life with everything I need and everything I want. Christmas is about helping people."
In early December, a secret Santa went into a Michigan Kmart and paid nearly $500 worth of layaway tabs, sparking a snowball effect of generosity throughout the discount store chain.
