

Travis Meriwether at his custom motorcycle shop, Enzo Custom Cycles, in Bastrop, TX. He has spent about $16,500 paying off layaway orders for people buying toys and games. / Erich Schlegel, for USA TODAY

Travis Meriwether has been waiting around layaway counters for three years in a row to surprise people with cash, paying off balances of strangers during the holidays.

The owner of a custom motorcycle business, Meriwether has spent about $16,500 paying off layaway orders for people buying toys and games. He is a "layaway Santa" or as some prefer, a "layaway angel."

For years, others like him have also been stopping by layaway departments, shocking customers at stores like Walmart, Kmart and Toys R Us. This year, the trend is continuing with scenes of unexpected joy popping up across the nation.

"I like to go to the layaway area and stay two or three hours," said Meriwether, 29, of Burnet, Texas. "I know those people don't have the money right away. Everybody who goes back to that layaway line needs some type of help. This way, they get to get their stuff today and it frees up their money."

Meriwether started buying strangers gifts when in 2011 the credit card of a woman ahead of him in line at Walmart was declined. He stepped in and paid for everything in her cart. Since then, he has visited layaway departments at Target and Walmart in Texas and Oklahoma, where he grew up.

The owner of "Enzo Custom Cycles" said he usually sticks to buying people food and toys during the holidays. Most other layaway donors do the same.

Since September, Walmart has seen more than 1,000 instances of strangers paying off people's layaway accounts.

"We just think it's amazing and a real representative of the spirit of America during this time of year," said Deisha Barnett, a Walmart spokeswoman.

In 2012, people anonymously paid off 794 layaways orders in Toys R Us stores. The company matched each of those gestures with $200 donations to Toys for Tots, giving the program $158,800 to help less fortunate children get toys on Christmas Day. It's doing the same this year.

At Kmarts across the country, more than $1.5 million worth of items have been paid off by strangers over the years. The company also created an online map in 2012 where people can track the Good Samaritans and see what people are saying about the deeds on Twitter.

While such layaway Santas might get the same results, their methods vary. In Florida, a man and his wife overheard a woman talking about her money problems and decided to pay for her items, according to a Walmart spokeswoman. In California, a man planned to use $1,000 to randomly pay off layaway lists of people he hadn't met. Some, like 30-year-old Lee Karchawer, take their giving to the Web.

Karchawer, of New York City, works for a mobile marketing company and created in October 2011.

"I thought I would be able to round up donations for people who wanted to become layaway angels but didn't have the time to go to the store or have the money power to pay off the whole layaway," he said.

Through the site, Karchawer collects donations of any amount, with the average person giving $25. The first year, he raised $2,000 from 75 donors and bought gifts for people in the New York City area.

This year, some 350 people have donated about $15,000. That money will go to help others in New York, Tennessee, Texas, Massachusetts and California.

Once the money arrives, Karchawer and others go to stores like Kmart, Toys R Us, and Babies R Us and store workers pick out random accounts that include children's toys. The stores then usually contact customers with paid off accounts and tell them of their good luck.

"Growing up, my parents were able to provide me with presents and I know how great that made me feel," Karchawer said. "I can't imagine a child not having that. This is an incredible movement to show how much compassion people have toward others."

Copyright 2014

Read the original story: 'Layaway Santas' bringing unexpected holiday joy


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