IT is the generous act that shocked staff at a local department store and brought customers to tears in the days before Christmas.
On Wednesday, a well-off Novocastrian walked into Big W Newcastle West, approached the back counter and asked to speak with management.
The person quietly informed staff that they wanted to pay off between $5000 and $10,000 worth of customers' outstanding lay-buys.
The only condition was their identity had to remain anonymous.
Stunned staff asked if the person was kidding.
"This is something you might hear about but not that you generally see locally," Big W store manager Faye Schoonbeek said.
"It's something I've never personally dealt with and I've been with the company 23 years now, I've had small amounts - we have people who will pay off people's groceries or jump in front and pay off someone's lay-buy."
Ms Schoonbeek and three employees were ultimately involved in processing the transaction.
She "couldn't believe" what was happening.
"They said: 'I'm lucky enough to have the ability to do this and to provide for people, so I just want to give back'," Ms Schoonbeek said of the customer's motivation.
"They did say that they wanted to keep people shopping locally and keep people coming back.
"There was a massive community spirit about it."
The total payment came to around $8000 and was specifically focused on helping people out at Christmas.
They said: 'I'm lucky enough to have the ability to do this and to provide for people, so I just want to give back'. They did say that they wanted to keep people shopping locally and keep people coming back. There was a massive community spirit about it.
Big W Newcastle West store manager Faye Schoonbeek
Ms Schoonbeek and her staff went through the outstanding lay-buys and identified those that had pick-up dates as close as possible to Christmas.
"It was everything; toys, homewares, Christmas items, televisions, cameras, trampolines, barbeques," she said.
"We said to [the person] if you're willing to wait we will make sure we get those Christmas items first and sort of worked back from there.
"But they honestly had no preference, this customer was just wanting to pay off as much as they possibly could and help as many people as they could."
While the transaction was being worked through, three customers came in to pay off their lay-buys and pick up the items for Christmas.
"The first response from the first customers was: 'Are you kidding me?'," Ms Schoonbeek said.
"'Are you Superman?' was another one. They said 'yes, but I'm not wearing my suit'."
"Every single one of them was shocked and extremely grateful.
"It literally brought them all to tears."
