Rizna Mutmainah
Money & Banking

Mystery couple pay off dozens of toy laybys ahead of Christmas

An anonymous couple has paid off the layby gifts for almost 100 Melbourne families at Toyworld Pakenham. 

The mystery secret Santa put the plan into motion almost six months ago, chipping away at layby balances for families at the toy store. 

The kind act was revealed on Wednesday, with tearful customers thanking the family. 

“My children are actually going to have a great Christmas, thank you to all these people,” customer and mum-of-two Melissa Roberson told 7NEWS through tears.

“It’s going to help us significantly.”

Toyworld employee Sandra Evans said: “I don’t know much about the family, all I know is that it’s a husband and wife and they’ve got four young children." 

“It’s been going for a while, so to hide that from everybody that comes in asking ‘can I put this on layby’, thinking 'you’re going to get this paid off soon’.”

The couple were not the only ones who are trying to spread some Christmas cheer, last week a mystery Good Samaritan performed a similar act at Toyworld in Helensvale on the Gold Coast. 

Customer and mum Brooklyn Manu received a call saying a generous gentleman had walked in the store and told the manager he would pay off every layby item in the store - including the  presents she was paying off for her children. 

“We were very teary-eyed, all of us were,” Toyworld manager Aleka Riggs said.

“It’s a feel-good thing you don’t see a lot, it’s beyond kindness — really amazing someone would do that.”

All those families have now saved thousands of dollars, and Riggs said: “Just thank you again, I can only imagine there are a lot of families that might be struggling to pay those laybys off."

Image: 7NEWS

Tags:
money & banking, christmas, secret santa