“No good deed ever goes unrewarded” was the case for a Piggly Wiggly employee who became an Internet sensation after returning a wallet and cellphone to a shopper who left the items behind.
Anthony Starr continues to be praised for his act of kindness as he tells Abc33 that it was no “big deal” for returning Shelia Spencer’s belongings back to her after finding them in a buggy.
“I thought about how I would feel if it was my stuff and was stolen from me. I would be devastated,” said Starr. “So I thought about her and I returned it.”
(photo credit: Sheila Spencer’s Facebook)
Spencer was shopping at a local Piggly Wiggly in Birmingham, Alabama when she forgot her cellphone and wallet with nearly $300 inside of a shopping cart on Wednesday evening. She called the grocery store to find out if her items were there. The store manager told Spencer that her all of her belongings had been turned in by Starr.
“I just wanted to give him a hug and tell him, ‘Thank you,'” Spencer noted.
The shopper posted a story of the employee’s kind act along with his photo on social media. She said she also called his mom and gave Starr with $100.
“We hear very little about kids when they do something positive, it’s always lots of talk about the bad things that happen,” Spencer wrote on Facebook Friday. “Let’s make this post go viral, to show other young men and ladies that there is honor in doing the right thing.”
The Alabama employee said he was surprised at how thankful she was.
“She took my picture and told me I was going to be viral, which I didn’t think would be for real. … But a lady came through my line an hour or two later and told me that I was on Facebook,” Starr said.
Spencer’s social post of Anthony’s story has received at least 97,000 shares and 231,000 likes.
“If you sow a good seed, you’ll receive a good seed. It’s not always what you do when people are watching you,” Spencer told the news station. “But character is all about what happens when nobody’s watching but you and God.”
Starr said he’s extremely grateful for all of the positive comments he’s receiving from people.
“It’s a blessing because it could have happened to anybody in the store. It happened to me, and I just thank her and God for allowing that to happen to me,” he said.
