Kmart layaway customers find purchases at Oakdale store paid off by ‘Secret Santa’

Some customers at the Kmart in Oakdale have found a welcome holiday surprise when store employees informed them that a “Secret Santa” had paid off their layaway purchases.

It’s a typical occurrence for employees handling the layaway accounts at the store on Maag Avenue. Ashlie Dickerson, an office associate at the store, said people typically show up during the holiday season offering to pay off someone’s layaway account.

“It’s just usually people who want to do something nice on the holidays,” Dickerson told The Modesto Bee on Thursday.

These Good Samaritans arrive at the store, telling employees they have a certain amount of money to pay off someone’s account. Dickerson said some try to pay off as many layaway accounts as they can.

And it’s done randomly and anonymously. The Good Samaritans don’t know the layaway customers, and neither do the store employees. Dickerson said the store on Thursday morning had receipts for layaway accounts paid off by a “Secret Santa” in amounts of $42.30, $70 and $40.

When a customer starts a layaway account, the store employees store the purchased items until the customer has completed the layaway payments.

Dickerson said the Good Samaritans will typically ask employees to search for layaway accounts with toys or other items that could be Christmas gifts for children. She said the store employees simply “eyeball” the boxes filled with layaway purchases and find what best fits the Good Samaritan’s request.

When the layaway customers return to the store to make their payments, they find a receipt indicating the account has been paid off by a “Secret Santa,” Dickerson said.

Brittney Bailey found that type of receipt recently when she went to the store Wednesday to pay off and pick up her layaway purchases, according to her Facebook post.

“If you are the secret Santa that paid off my layaway, GOD BLESS YOU and have a Merry Christmas,” Bailey wrote in her Facebook post, shared on the Oakdale Area Incident Feed page.

Bailey also received a greeting card from her “Secret Santa” wishing her peace and joy throughout the new year and signed with “God bless you!”

This story was originally published December 20, 2018 at 6:50 PM with the headline "Kmart layaway customers find purchases at Oakdale store paid off by ‘Secret Santa’."