Donor pays off 43 Walmart layaways

HASTINGS, Mich. (WOOD) - The Walmart store in Hastings received a call Tuesday morning from an anonymous donor requesting to pay off all the layaways.

A $10,000 check was given and 43 customers had their layaways completely paid for by the so-called Secret Santa.

"The fact that we have a customer willing to come to our store in Hastings and pay off layaways for other customers in the neighborhood, we're very grateful," Walmart Assistant Manager Derek Waddle told 24 Hour News 8.

The total payoff was about $7,800. The remaining $2,200 was given to a local charity.

"We had one lady who we thought fainted on the phone. When they told her her layaway had been paid off, there was no response for a few minutes," said assistant manager Carla Jiles. "So the associate hung up and re-dialed the phone and said, 'I thought something happened to you.' She said, 'No, I don't know what to say. I'm so elated that it was paid off.'"

Last year, another Secret Santa paid off three layaway bills at the Big Kmart store in Plainfield Township, sparking a slew of similar gifts across West Michigan and other parts of the nation. Among those was a $5,000 gift to pay off layaways at the Kmart store in Hastings.

== Watch the full story from 24 Hour News 8's Eva Aguirre Cooper above ==