Gas Station Attendant Blown Away After Anonymous Customer Buys Him Vehicle
What would your response be if a salesman from a car dealership showed up at your job, handed you their information and told you that after work you could come over and pick out a car at no charge?
You’d probably say something like what Bradley Rowe of Astoria, Oregon, said when Bill Ring from Warrenton Kia showed up on Nov. 20 and told him exactly that. Rowe had been needing a new set of wheels and was working to get a $2,000 loan so he could purchase a 1998 Ford Explorer, so the gift was a huge surprise.
“I didn’t believe him at first,” Rowe said of the news, according to WFMY-TV.
But thanks to a very kind and generous stranger, 23-year-old Rowe was about to become the owner of a 2016 Kia Sportage. It all started with what seemed like a pretty standard interaction for Rowe, who is a fuel station attendant at Safeway Fuel in Astoria.
“He was just asking some questions,” Rowe said of the anonymous customer. “I’m like, ‘well, I’m trying to get a car loan.’ He said how much, he asked what lot. I said ‘well it was a private sale.’
“Just sitting and chatting with him, then his gas was done. He said you have a great day, I said you too.”
And that was that — or so it seemed. But the stranger went over to Bill Ring at the nearby Kia dealership, who initially had a difficult time pinning down exactly what it was the man was looking for.
“He told me what he was looking for and I was trying to help him get dialed in,” Ring said.
The man seemed to dither, but then the truth came out and he said the car wasn’t for him.
“He made the comment saying that the car is not going to be for me anyway, and that changed the whole thing,” Ring recalled. “It was like, well, what do you mean it’s not going to be for you?”
The man explained, and Ring was shocked. In a further show of thoughtfulness, the unnamed stranger decided the best thing to do would be to let Rowe choose the vehicle himself, so he left Ring with a check for enough “to find something good” and the job of breaking the news to Rowe.
“You really made a good impression on somebody today and somebody’s really going out of their way for you,” Ring told Rowe after driving over to tell him about the gift. “Here’s my business card and when you get off work, you got to come pick out a new car.”
The Kia Sportage fit Rowe’s needs, and he was able to choose it from several options. The car was the newest he’d ever had, and the whole thing felt a little too good to be true.
“I’ve never had a fob, like to even be able to lock or unlock my car,” Rowe explained. “The day I picked it up and drove home, the next morning, I woke up and immediately went looking for my keys to make sure it was real.
“I mostly just can’t wrap my head around the sheer kindness of that complete stranger,” Rowe continued. “To talk to somebody for five minutes and then go, ‘I’m gonna buy him a car.’ It’s just unreal.”
But it was real, a true show of unexpected kindness that will stick with Rowe. Ring recalled that the man had alluded to wanting to give back.
“He made the comment that everything in his life changed when he found his faith and now he had the opportunity to give back to somebody who’s in need,” Ring said.
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