A woman queuing at the tills in Tesco stepped in when the man next to her realised he had forgotten his wallet.
David Roche, 54, panicked when he couldn’t buy his shopping, and the store was about to close.
He had a basket of shopping for his girlfriend, who had ‘no food in whatsoever’.
The cashier said they could not keep the shop open for him, and David was ‘absolutely gutted’.
But it was his lucky evening, as the young woman in front of him at the supermarket in Liverpool noticed what happened, and said ‘Don’t worry, I’ll pay for the shopping.’
‘I couldn’t believe it,’ David said. ‘Everyone around us actually gasped at her act of kindness. I told her it was the kindest thing anyone had ever done for me. I thanked her from the bottom of my heart.’
The woman – who David thinks was in her early to mid-20s – paid for all his shopping, which came to a total of £25.79, and left the receipt with him.
All she bought for herself was a £3 birthday card for her dad.
When David thanked her for her kindness, she simply said, ‘just pay it forward’.
She left the shop and David tried to catch up with her to offer to pay her back, but couldn’t reach her in time.
He has now spoken to the papers to try and track down his ‘guardian angel’ and thank her for the kind gesture at Tesco Extra in Cables Retail Park, Prescot.
David, who works in a food production company in Whiston, said: ‘It was like a godsend. That was the last shop open and Louise had no food in whatsoever.’
‘It’s restored my faith in humanity, for a total stranger to do that. I would of course love to do something in future to pay it forward like she said.’
It happened while David, from Kensington, was shopping on Sunday just before the 4pm closing time.
David said: ‘I’d already unloaded my shopping onto the belt. When I realised I’d forgotten my wallet I was so embarrassed.’
The checkout assistant suggested he use his phone to pay instead, but David didn’t have the right app on his phone.
After the woman’s kind gesture, David said he couldn’t catch up with her in time with everyone leaving the closing store at once, and while carrying the heavy bags. He looked for her in the Tesco cafe, in Boots and The Range, but couldn’t find her.
He said she had brown hair and wore a white t-shirt and black trousers, and he now wants to reach her to thank her properly.
‘I’d like to send her a bunch of flowers to say thank you,’ he said. ‘And I’d like it to be known what a kind person she is. I think things like this should be recognised, because they don’t get recognised enough.’
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