A Good Samaritan in a Florida store brought one customer to tears Thursday after he gave up the store’s last generator to a stranger behind him in line.
WFTV reports that Pam Brekke, who traveled 30 miles to a Lowe’s home improvement store in Orlando from her home in Sanford, was in line to purchase a generator to ensure she had power during Hurricane Irma when she noticed that the customer in front of her got the last one in stock.
“My father’s on oxygen, and I’m worried about this storm,” she said while wiping tears from her eyes.
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Brekke told the Washington Post that her father is a Korean War veteran with congestive heart failure and has a pacemaker that keeps him alive. She said that she turns on an oxygen machine every night that pumps oxygen to him to take the strain off his heart.
Ramon Santiago, the customer in front of her, randomly walked up to her and offered her the generator he was going to purchase without knowing the reason she was in tears.
“She need the generator,” said Santiago, whose first language isn’t English. “It’s OK. No worry for them.”
Brekke thanked Santiago and they both shared a hug.
“I don’t know him at all. He’s a stranger. He’s an angel from God is what he is,” Brekke told WESH.
“God will bless that man,” she added.
At the time, store managers said they were unsure if they would be able to get more generators due to the demand from Irma, but Santiago was in for a surprise of his own.
After Santiago’s act of kindness went viral, the store’s manager notified him that a new generator was available later in the day on Friday and that she would give it to him free of charge.
“I wanted to make sure he received it because he definitely deserved it,” manager Melissa Rodriguez told WFTV. “He’s the hero of the day.”