About 150 Toys 'R' Us customers received an early Christmas present in the form of an awesome surprise on Wednesday - having their layaway orders paid off completely.
A Massachusetts woman walked into a Toys 'R' Us store in Bellingham, Mass., and paid $20,000 to wipe the entire layaway balance at that location, a spokeswoman for Toys 'R' Us confirmed to ABC News on Thursday.
"This incredible act of kindness is a true illustration of holiday giving at its best," the company said in a statement.
Hailed as a "layaway angel" by the media, the woman wished to remain anonymous. But according to the Milford Daily News, the generous donor was a local resident who reportedly said she would "sleep better at night" knowing that all of the accounts were paid off.
When the customers found out that their accounts had been paid off, most of them were in tears.
"I didn't believe it," Linda, a Toys 'R' Us customer, said. "I thought, 'You have to be kidding me.' I almost wanted to cry. It was only $50, but that someone would go and do that gave me chills. What they did was so caring and thoughtful. I feel like I was part of something special - touched by an angel."
"I have no words. I can't believe someone would do that, it's so nice," Diane Brewer said. "I have been running around all week picking up layaways everywhere, so this is really awesome."
"I am so thankful for what she has done," customer Lauren Carreiro Collette wrote on the Fox 25 Facebook page. "She is my Christmas Angel."
The celebration of holidays is known to inspire total strangers to perform similar good deeds.
On Wednesday, Tom Gubitosi went to his local Walmart in Farmingdale, N.Y., and gave $100 shopping sprees to about 200 children each in honor of his late mother, WABC TV reported.
In another instance, dozens of police officers in Cape Cod, Mass., treated 26 children to lunch and $200 gift cards for the annual "Shop with Cops" program.
Last year, a Florida man used more than $21,000 of his own money to pay down layaway account balances at a Walmart in central Florida.
