Editor’s note: The man who bought the cookies has been identified as Detric Lee McGowan, who has been arrested on federal drug charges. Read KTLA’s updated coverage here.
It was a chilly winter night in Greenville, South Carolina, and Emerson and Maya were on Girl Scout duty selling cookies outside a store.
At one point, a man approached the stand and bought seven boxes of cookies worth $40, and told them to keep the change, according to cookie manager Kayla Dillard.
Then, he went back to the table and said: “Pack up all of your cookies. I’m taking them all so y’all can get out of this cold,” Dillard said in a Facebook post. He spent $540 on cookies, she said.
“What an amazing soul. It was about 34 degrees outside that night and we were there for about two hours already before he came,” Dillard told CNN.
“We all were shocked. The girls were very excited and thankful.”
Dillard said she does not know the good Samaritan. But his act of kindness surely earned him a place in the girls’ hearts for a long time.