'We hear very little about kids when they do something positive': Teen turns in wallet, story goes viral

A teenage Piggly Wiggly employee named Anthony is getting praise for returning a phone and a wallet with nearly $300 cash. (Photo: Facebook/Sheila Spencer)
A teenage Piggly Wiggly employee named Anthony is getting praise for returning a phone and a wallet with nearly $300 cash. (Photo: Facebook/Sheila Spencer)

Everyone is raving about a teenage Piggly Wiggly employee who returned a lost wallet containing nearly $300. Facebook user Sheila Spencer of Birmingham, Ala., commended the 17-year-old worker for returning her phone and a wallet stuffed with $270 after she left them in a shopping cart last week. “This young man is Anthony…” Spencer wrote Friday, posting a photo of the teen, who has worked at Piggly Wiggly for ten months.

Spencer explained that on Wednesday, after returning home from the store on Forestdale Boulevard, she realized that her phone and wallet — which held $200 of someone else’s money and $70 of hers — were missing. “Tracing my steps I realized that the only place I had been was Piggly Wiggly,” she wrote. After calling the store, she was informed that an employee named Anthony had turned in her phone and wallet — and her cash was in it.

IMG_1940.HEICThis young man is Anthony, he works at the Piggly Wiggly on 78. On Wednesday after work I went to Piggly…

Posted by Shelia Spencer on Friday, October 19, 2018

“The picture below is Anthony. Anthony is a teenager at Central Park Christian,” Spencer wrote on Facebook. “I went to bless Anthony today with $100.00, and I also called his mom Joyce to tell her what a great job she was doing with her son. His mom cried tears of joys. We hear very little about kids when they do something positive, it’s always lots of talk about the bad things that happen. Let’s make this post go viral, to show other young men and ladies that there is honor in doing the right thing.”

Spencer and Anthony did not return Yahoo Lifestyle’s requests for comment. “He’s a really good guy — a good kid with a great heart,” Piggly Wiggly store manager Jason Anthony tells Yahoo Lifestyle. He also says Sheila is a regular who visits the store every day.

Almost 3,000 people on Facebook have congratulated Anthony for his good deed, and Spencer’s post has been shared more than 1,000 times.

Armstrong says the store will issue a reward to Anthony over the coming days. “We’ll take care of him,” he said.

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