Tracy Folks was going to have to cancel her layaway purchase at her local Walmart. “It's been a rough year this year,” said the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania woman.
But when Folks popped into the Grayson Road Walmart on Monday afternoon, she got some astonishing news: A stranger had paid off her layaway.
“Today was definitely a big deal,” she tearfully told WABC-TV.
Folks is one of hundreds of Walmart customers who have benefited from the generosity of a “secret Santa” this holiday season. According to the retail giant, three anonymous donors in three states have contributed almost $500,000 this week to pay off customers' holiday layaways.
At the Harrisburg Walmart, a local businessman known only as “Santa B.” paid not just for Folks’ purchase, but a whopping $79,000 worth of layaways at the store on Monday.
“It was specifically the holiday layaways,” store manager Christy Evans told WABC-TV, adding that customers have had “mixed reactions” to the strangers’ gift, from “complete relief” to people “just breaking down and crying.”
According to ABC News, “Santa B.” also donated another $79,000 to a Walmart store in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania this week. That amount is said to have covered the store's entire layaway balance.
In a Facebook post Tuesday, a man named Thomas Etzle Jr. said he was one of the Pennsylvania Walmart customers who benefited from Santa B.'s generosity.
“This is the first year I had to use layaway due to losing my job. I can not tell you how much this really means to me,” he wrote. “I can HONESTLY say I am truly blessed. It may not have been a large layaway but to truly feel the Christmas Spirit is PRICELESS.”
In neighboring Ohio this week, another big-hearted secret Santa is said to have shelled out more than $100,000 to pay off customers' holiday layaways at two Walmart stores, reports WJW-TV.
“This is probably the best Christmas I’ve ever had, I’m just super happy,” Tara Neal, a mom of four and customer at one of the Ohio Walmarts, told ABC News after learning of the stranger's kind gift. A “Frozen”-themed bed that she'd put on layaway for her 3-year-old daughter had been paid off, she said.
According to Walmart, a third Good Samaritan in Florida donated $200,000 to two local stores to cover layaway balances.
In total, the three donors spent more than $484,000, the retail chain told ABC News.
“Christmas is a time of year when many people go above and beyond to give back to their neighbors and communities,” Walmart spokesperson Wyatt Jefferies said in a statement. “When customers anonymously pay off others’ layaway items we’re reminded of the amazing things people will do to support each other. We’re proud to be a small part of these random acts of kindness.”