If you had items on layaway at a Walmart in East Point or Douglasville, Tyler Perry may have taken care of the bill.
Perry, the prolific Atlanta filmmaker, paid off about $434,000 between the Walmart on 844 Cleveland Avenue in East Point and the store at 7001 Concourse Parkway in Douglasville, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Perry, who intended the gift to be anonymous, confirmed the gift in a video posted to Twitter.
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Any items on layaway at those stores before 9:30 a.m. today, Dec. 6, were included in Perry’s payments. Customers must pay one cent to pick up the items Perry paid for.
“I know it’s hard times, everyone’s struggling and I’m just really, really grateful to be able to be in a position to this,” Perry said in the video. “So, God bless you, go get your stuff and merry Christmas.”
Perry was inspired to make the gift after watching a segment on “Good Morning America” about “Walmart secret Santas” who pay off single layaway accounts at the store anonymously, a person close to Perry said.
A Walmart manager at the Douglasville location said there's usually about 1,000 layaway accounts at the store during the holidays. While good Samaritans will occasionally come in and pay off one random account, she's never seen someone pay off the entire layaway system.
"I was shocked," said manager Shameka, who didn't provide her last name. "It shows that we know there's still good people in the world."
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