Acts of Kindness
Walmart customers get text saying their items have been paid off
“I got a text from Walmart layaway saying someone had paid my layaway and I only owed a penny."
Ashley Fike
12.10.20

The Christmas spirit is alive and well in mid-state Michigan. Customers of a local Walmart received texts saying that their layaway items had been paid off.

Wikimedia Commons
Source:
Wikimedia Commons

And even though the text was a welcome one, customers were confused at first. How was it possible that they no longer owed a penny when it wasn’t them who paid off the bill? One of those customers spoke to a local news station about that moment.

“At first I didn’t believe it,” Melissa Halladay told WNEM. “I got a text from Walmart layaway saying someone had paid my layaway and I only owed a penny.”

On Halladay’s layaway gift list were Frozen dolls, a tablet, and other gifts for her daughter’s upcoming 3rd birthday – all amounting to around $230.

YouTube/KNEM TV5
Source:
YouTube/KNEM TV5

“I was in shock, I didn’t know how to feel,” she continued. “Then I cried a little bit and then I went and picked up my items.”

Reaching out to Walmart, the local Midland news station was told that it was true. A random mystery donor gave the store $3,000 to put toward layaway items.

The mystery donor asked to remain anonymous but they wanted to make sure that the donated money went mostly toward gifts for children.

One thing is absolutely for certain, it’s a holiday season that Halladay and so many other customers won’t ever forget. Especially during a year where times have fallen extremely hard for so many families.

YouTube/KNEM TV5
Source:
YouTube/KNEM TV5

“It helped us,” she said. “I was off work for a while for medical conditions, so we’ve been behind on bills and struggling a little bit. It was just great to get that phone call. it was something that really helped us.”

Walmart released a statement about the extremely kind and generous gesture – proud to be a part of such a compassionate act.

“It’s especially touching when customers pay off others’ layaways during the holiday season and serves as another example of the generosity our customers show year-round,” Walmart officials released in a statement. “We’re honored to play a small role in these acts of kindness and we love seeing the joy it brings to our customers this time of year.”

Wikimedia Commons
Source:
Wikimedia Commons

Walmart spokeswoman, Tara Aston, says that the company tends to see these random acts of kindness during this time of year. Across the country, these types of donors have been called “layaway angels” – sometimes paying off entire bills or even just a small portion.

Aston wasn’t sure of the exact number of bills that ended up being paid off with that $3,000, but she assumes it’s somewhere between 15 and 20 accounts.

Paying off layaway accounts isn’t the only way that Secret Santas offer to help strangers during the often stressful holiday season. In 2019, an anonymous donor in east Idaho gifted $500,000 to random people in need. He enlisted the help of East Idaho News to locate these people that could use a little help.

East Idaho News
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East Idaho News

One couple, Erica and Brad Crow were the beneficiaries to $50,000 of that half a million dollars. The couple and their adopted children had been living in a trailer as they built a new home.

Brad Crow was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 14 and eventually beat it. But that summer, he was hurt during construction and developed a staph infection, causing his leg to be amputated. The $50,000 went toward their medical bills and to help finish the new home.

Don’t you just love hearing feel-good stories like these? Learn more about the “layaway angel” in Michigan in the video below.

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