'Layaway angels' help Kmart customers

Many Kmart shoppers are getting a Christmas surprise — a phone call from the store telling them their layaway bills have been paid off by philanthropic strangers caught up in the holiday spirit.

"It's a phenomenon that's just started this year," said Sebring Kmart Store Manager Tom Tibble, who referred to the benefactors as "layaway angels."

"It's happening in stores across the country. I think I first heard about it three weeks ago.

"The more publicity it gets the more it builds."

Kmart, in turn, calls customers to let them know their layaway purchase is paid and can be picked up.

Some "angels" come in and pay off one family's layaway, like Sebring resident Judi Sneesby, who paid Wednesday for a couple Tonka trucks and baby dolls for a family she's never met.

She was impressed by another couple doing the same thing — and more.

"This couple had a list; they went through the list they were holding," she said of her visit to Kmart Wednesday. "When I left they were up to $800 to $900.

"They had to have 10 different layaways they paid for. I told them what they were doing was wonderful."

Sneesby said she got the idea after reading in Highlands Today about a Sebring woman who gave away $50 bills to single mothers standing in the Kmart layaway line.

"Maybe some parent will be able to look at their child this Christmas and see a smile," Sneesby said.

An Associated Press story told of the phenomenon mostly at Kmart stores, although other chains have seen it happen in some cities.

"Santa is getting some help," the story read. "Anonymous donors are paying off strangers' layaway accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn't afford, especially toys and children's clothes set aside by impoverished parents."

Some of those donors have paid large amounts at the Sebring Kmart.

"Some come in and pay off one layaway," Tibble said. "Some pay different amounts on different layaways. Several have come into the store who have paid off $500 or more."

One couple has come in twice and paid more than $500 each time, he said.

"It's really heartwarming," Tibble said. "It makes you feel so good.

"One lady was there to pick up and pay off her layaway. An angel was in front of her paying off her layaway but she didn't know it."

When the customer got to the counter and found out her bill was paid, she burst into tears of joy, Tibble said.

A woman who was paying off a stranger's layaway Thursday, and did not wish to be identified, said she got the idea when she read about it recently.