Everyone has a story. What's yours?
 Linda Thomas
twitter: @TheNewsChick
About Linda
Linda is the morning news anchor and features reporter for KIRO Radio. This is her local news blog, with an emphasis on social media, technology, Northwest companies, education, parenting, and anything else that grabs her attention.

If you have a news tip or story idea, I'd love to hear from you...

To leave a voice message for Linda about any of her stories call toll free 1-855-251-2363

Follow Me on Pinterest


NW woman pays Walmart layaway bills

December 12, 2011 @ 9:37 am (Updated: 9:39 am - 12/12/11 )

In Yelm, Santa Claus is a woman with $5,000 cash.

Walmart A store employee tells me a woman walked into the Walmart yesterday in Yelm and started paying layaway customers' bills.

A store supervisor says no one recognized the woman as a local resident.

She went to the layaway department and asked if she could pay the bills of single moms who had toys on reserve for Christmas.

Next, the woman offered to pay for a bicycle a couple was planning on buying for a grandchild.

"It's encouraging to know there are nice people out there like that," a Walmart employee says.

More from Linda Thomas

MyNorthwest.com - Purpose of Comments statement
Bonneville Media encourages site users to express their opinions by posting comments. Our goal is to maintain a civil dialogue in which readers feel comfortable. At times, the comments can descend to personal attacks. Please do not engage in such behavior. We encourage your thoughtful comments which: have a positive and constructive tone, are on topic, are respectful toward others and their opinions. Bonneville reserves the right to remove comments which do not conform to these criteria.

Comments (19)


  • Add A Comment

  • messiah101 wrote...
    Sounds like
    December 12, 2011 9:01 am
    An Urban Myth
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • jpetro wrote...
    That
    December 12, 2011 9:39 am
    was nice!!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hpygolkyone wrote...
    My Two Cents...............
    December 12, 2011 9:53 am
    I believe in Santa!

    I have had a very good year and I wanted to do something to show my appreciation for my good fortune of having a job and good health and serenity.

    1. Stealthfully (is that a word?) dropped a $100.00 bill into a Salvation Army bucket.

    2. Made a $100.00 anonymous cash donation to a Christmas (OH Did I say the "C" word!!) potluck for people recovering from substance abuse.

    3. Gave away $100.00 worth of tickets to the Seattle Men's Choir Christmas (I said it again!) Concert, to a financially strapped couple who don't have the resources to "get in the spirit".

    4. This morning I opened a retirement fund with a generous cash donation for a divorced mother of 4 who has no retirement.

    Yes, Virgina......there really is a Santa Claus.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    Thank You
    December 12, 2011 11:10 am
    Even with all the bad news and troubles of the times, it is this kind of "Pay it Forward" benevolence that makes the world a better place. Happy Holidays - Sincerely!!!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • happy happy joy joy wrote...
    Seems to be spreading
    December 12, 2011 10:09 am
    I read a couple stories of this happening across the country. Some families are really going to be thankful this year.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    How COOL is that?
    December 12, 2011 10:20 am
    If this is true, we sure could stand to hear some more nice stories like this. Tis' the Season....FaLaLaLa...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • illinois18 wrote...
    That is true.
    December 17, 2012 2:54 pm
    I just received a call from Walmart in Gurnee, IL, saying that someone paid off my layaway. I was in awe, still am, whoever did that has a generous heart. I am a single mother and I have no idea how they would be able to know that, though. Anyway, I am very touched. There were two toys for about $90, but to me, no matter how much this person spent paying off something for my family, it's priceless. I just want to let him or her know, if they are reading this, that I appreciate it. I was actually going to cancel the other $50 toy and just pay off the Baby Alive doll. But thanks to your generosity, my daughter will get this interactive cool toy.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • gworker wrote...
    Helping Homeless Children
    December 12, 2011 10:35 am
    On Sixty minutes there was a story about homeless children in Florida. A father and his 14 and 11 year old kids were living in a former plumbing company van. They cleaned up in gas stations and went to school like normal kids. On a follow up over a million dollars had been raised to help other kids and their parents living in their cars,offers of free housing and jobs, and the two kids were given free scholarships by three collages! and their father was able to get a job. The parents of other kids were given jobs. There is still good people in this country
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    I wonder how WalMart knew which lay-aways....
    December 12, 2011 12:10 pm
    were being held by "single moms". Do you have to reveal your marital status to lay away a toy at WalMart?

    God bless the giver if this is true. If this is merely a publicity stunt on behalf of WalMart, what could possibly be lower?

    Not that many years ago, I believe it was at least one location of WalMart that was in trouble for a bogus "Toys For Tots" drive. The store put up a tree and a sign near the cash registers, encouraging the shoppers to purchase an extra toy and leave it for (supposed) distribution to disadvantaged kids. Only problem? After the store closed each night, the brand new toys were simply put back on the shelf for resale again the next day.

    If an unknown person is showing up at WalMarts all across America to pay off the layaways of "single mothers" (again, how would WalMart know who was a single mother?), I would say there's something rotten afoot. Once can be a generous spontaneous gift- but a bunch of these incidents in close proximity would stretch credibility.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    Baaaa Humbug Chuck
    December 12, 2011 12:31 pm
    Whatever the case, why would you go after Walmart for some ones kindness? If this woman wanted to help ANYBODY who is being responsible enough to lay-away their kids gifts, why would you be such s SCROOGE about it? I take back my earlier compliement to you and I'm back to call a Rat a Rat...(You being said Rat Mr. Philsopher) LOL!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    maplefish: Please read carefully
    December 12, 2011 10:57 pm
    I said "God bless the giver if this is true."

    I think there is a fishy smell to the story until and unless somebody can inform me how WalMart knew which lay-aways were placed by "single moms". I don't shop at WalMart, don't use lay-away to buy things, but I would be shocked to learn that you had to divulge your marital and or parental status to lay away a toy at WalMart.

    This could be a great publicity stunt. Look how many people are sharing a positive, feel good story about WalMart. If the giver was a WalMart shill, and if nothing was actually paid off and the money went back into the till (*IF*...I have no way to know that's what happened), then this possible publicity stunt cost WalMart almost nothing at all.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • illinois18 wrote...
    Sir, it is true
    December 17, 2012 3:08 pm
    I cannot believe it either, but I assure you that it is true. Walmart called me yesterday and left me a message saying that today is the last day for layaway and it will be canceled if I don't extend it or something like. I never listened to that voicemail until today, right after I answered their 3rd call for the day, to my surprise, she tells me that someone paid off my layaway. This was the Walmart in Gurnee, IL I am glad to know that there still generous and thoughtful people out there. I am a single mom, and I don't recall putting down my marital status on the layaway. So I really can't tell you if it's just random, or how they picked the people to donate to. All I know is that they will make my baby girl's Christmas extra special. And they have already made mine super special.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Fact check: Sterling Colorado Walmart, 2002
    December 12, 2011 12:25 pm
    The excuse given for returning the Toys for Tots donations to the shelf for resale was "People were putting toys into the donation pile without any bags or receipts. We had no way of knowing whether those toys had actually been purchased by shoppers, or shoplifted from our inventory and then placed in the Toys For Tots area."

    Yeah, that's it. People are going to risk going to jail for shoplifting so they can donate the stolen toy. :-(

    To be entirely fair, at the corporate level WalMart makes a generous cash donation each year to the Toys for Tots drive.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Foxfier wrote...
    Chuck-
    December 12, 2011 9:47 pm
    Being passingly familiar with the human race, I can quite fully believe that people will pick up toys and drop them into "donation" baskets in the store- self-justifying it as it doesn't really cost the store anything. I'd bet they even had it on tape, too.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • sportsguru wrote...
    Dang Chuck
    December 12, 2011 7:34 pm

    I really wanted to feel good about this story and just like scrooge, you snatched that feel good story right out of my mind,and then followed up with a link, your thorough if nothing else,lol.

    I am asking santa to deliver coal to your house,lol.

    Oh wait Santa is not real.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    guru: I merely asked how Walmart knew which lay aways were held by single mothers....
    December 12, 2011 10:50 pm
    and there may be a good answer.

    If there isn't, then there is a *possibility* that this entire event could be cooked up by WalMart for the publicity it generated, if nothing else. If $5,000 (from somebody entirely unrecognized in a very small town) was passed across the counter to "pay off toys laid away by single moms", it would be nice to know that's how the money was actually used. If not, is this another case of the "toys being put back on the shelf", or, in this case, nothing actually paid off and the $5,000 going back into the Walmart coffers?

    Meanwhile; message to single moms; "Do your Christmas shopping at Walmart, somebody just might show up and pay off all the toys!"

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • sportsguru wrote...
    Chuck Gould
    December 13, 2011 6:08 am

    I am just giving you a hard time chuck, there is a good chance that you are right, especially with the colorado incident that you shared for which I was not aware of.

    I wasn't playing when I said you stole that good feeling I had when I read the headline right out of my head, I want to believe in humanity so bad, to get a instant like this taken away to what could possibly be a hoax is disappointing.

    It's a disgusting bit of public relations if what you are saying is true by walmart.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • NWGrammy wrote...
    You forget...
    December 18, 2011 3:16 am
    @Chuck Gouldm you forget REAL people work at Walmart. The Corp big shots aren't sitting there doing these transactions, real honest to goodness people are. This is a small town and like other small towns people actually talk and converse during transactions. Sometimes you get to know people, if only for that small moment. In that small moment you can get a lot of information about someones life and troubles. We are talking about a Walmart that deals with less than 100 layaways, not some big city store. They pretty much have the same employees working the layaway dept during the holidays so they get to know the people a little during these transactions. It is quite possible for these few employees to know which customers where the most needy. I know this because I know the employees who work there, they love their job and they were so happy for the recipients. Maybe you shouldn't look for the bad when surrounded by good, eventually you might actually find it, but not this time. Shame on you.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }