Secret Santa’s incredible act

Published 4:02pm 17 December 2020

A Secret Santa who has been paying-off entire lay-by balances at Mr Toys Toyworld stores around Australia, has struck again – in Rothwell!

A sales clerk at the store on Deception Bay Rd has confirmed the Secret Santa paid off the balance, owed by customers on laybys, by phone.

The staff member would not comment further as the caller wished to remain anonymous.

It follows similar acts of amazing generosity at Mr Toys Toyworld stores at Gympie, Burleigh Waters and in Melbourne.

Reports suggest the Gold Coast Secret Santa paid balances totalling more the $16,000 on around 80 laybys. At Gympie the caller was reported to be a man who paid a five-figure sum.

As news of the Rothwell pay-off spread, Hollie Thompson posted on the Redcliffe Peninsula Facebook page: “To the incredibly kind and generous soul that just paid off ours and everyone else’s lay-by at Mr Toys Toyworld at Rothwell, thank you, thank you so much.”

“The store gave me a call this afternoon,” says Hollie, from Newport, “I thought I’d missed a payment or something! But they said they’d had a lovely Secret Santa pay for the lay-bys.

“I burst into tears. I was such a kind offer. I had about 10 items.”

Hollie, who has two children, had heard of the previous Secret Santa payments at other Mr Toys Toyworld stores.

“One of my girlfriends had actually said to me ‘imagine if that was you!’.”

Another comment on the same page said: “Wow! A nice way to share their good fortune, super lovely.”

Others were quick to follow. They included: “Wow, that’s amazing. What a one-in-a-million individual” and “an incredible person with enormous generosity. Bless them.”

Among the rest was: “It’s been happening all over Australia. Someone amazing has been making Christmas a little brighter. An incredible act of kindness.”

At the time of writing the Redcliffe Peninsula Facebook post had more than 660 reactions and 121 comments.