Man buys $500 of Girl Scout cookies to get scouts out of the cold

The man bought 121 boxes of cookies so the girls wouldn't have to stand out in the cold any longer. Photo / Getty Images

Cookie mama-ger Kayla Dillard watched what she called a rare act of kindness Friday evening while supervising two second-graders sell Girl Scout cookies outside a Greenville, South Carolina, grocery store.

The 8-year-olds had been behind the booth for nearly two hours when a gentleman exited the local BI-LO supermarket. He bought seven boxes of cookies and handed the girls $40, telling them to keep the change, recalled Dillard, a troop co-leader.

The girls thanked him, and he walked toward the parking lot. Several minutes later, the same man, whom Dillard did not know, pulled up to the booth in a dark car.

"Pack them up. I'm going to take them all so you can get out of the cold weather," he said, adding he had seen the girls shivering, Dillard told The Washington Post in a phone interview.

He bought 121 boxes, totaling $484. He gave the children $500. Again, he didn't want the change.

"He got whatever we had," Dillard said, including Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Patties, Peanut Butter Sandwiches, S'mores, Lemonades and Shortbread cookies.

There were two boys waiting to buy cookies, too, Dillard remembered. They had $4 between them - enough for one box - and were debating which to buy. Dillard said the man told the boys "to pick whatever they wanted out of the boxes he purchased."

According to the National Weather Service, it was around 50 degrees in Greenville on Friday evening.

Girl Scout Troop #1574's goal was to sell 3,200 packages by March 17. The girls have surpassed their season target with three more weekends of booth sales to go at local stores. Currently, the troop is at 5,000 sales.

The girls were "shocked," "really thankful" for the man's action and took a photo together, said Dillard. Her 8-year-old daughter, a member of the troop, was supposed to have been there but had gone to the daddy-daughter dance instead.

"Her friend stepped into her spot for the night," Dillard said. "I'm just glad we were there to meet him. Thank you."