Man Gifts Trade-in Car to Complete Stranger at Dealership After Hearing Her Story
Education, medical bills, cars, houses: these are just some of the things in life that can stress your bank account to its breaking point. Even with perfect conditions and great credit history, many people are just one major accident away from being in financial jeopardy.
It’s even tougher when you’re just starting out. Once you get a bit of a breather and are able to pay off student loans, things can start to look up. But when you’re in the thick of it, opportunities seem rare.
Kayla Cooper was experiencing that firsthand last week when she went to an Auto City location in San Diego, California, to sort out her transportation issue. Holding down two jobs as a nursing student, Cooper had been borrowing cars to get around — but that arrangement was about to come to an end.
When Cooper learned how much money she’d need to purchase a vehicle, she knew it was beyond her current means.
“I would have to literally pull a needle out of a haystack to try to get myself a car so I could get to work,” Cooper said, according to KGTV.
Crying, she finally left Auto City, unsure how she was going to find what she needed to keep both of her jobs.
Fortunately for her, a man at the dealership who was there to trade in his car heard some of the young lady’s story and was moved to help her.
After Cooper left, Dan Laguardia asked the salesman to call Cooper back to the dealership.
“I could kind of tell she wasn’t getting what she was there for,” Laguardia said.
Seoul Fields overheard what happened next, and posted the story to Facebook.
“So this happened tonight,” the Feb 5. post began. “(H)ere was a gentleman buying a BMW trading in an older Scion XB.”
“About the same time young girl comes in trying to purchase a Corolla, she’s a struggling student working 2 jobs, but unfortunately wasn’t able to finance a car. She broke down into tears as a salesperson was consoling her we all felt really bad but there’s not much you can do.”
“She leaves and the gentleman, asks if we were able to help her. The salesperson says no and is visibly upset about it. The guy says call your customer back I’m giving her my trade in.”
“She comes back a few minutes later, he signs over the title and hands her the keys. While he sat in finance, she sat in the car crying…. God is good!”
For Cooper, it was nothing short of a miracle, and she didn’t believe his generous offer at first.
“I was shaking,” she said. “It’s a whole car; how can someone be so generous to give their car away?”
Laguardia seemed to think it was pretty simple. “The car had more value to her than it did for me trading it in,” he explained.
“That gives her a bit of a jumpstart in life,” he said. “Which, if everybody did that for everybody else, we’d be in a much better place.”
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