Man buys $540 worth of Girl Scout cookies so girls don't have to stay out in cold
Editor's Note: The man featured in the story below, now identified as Detric McGowan, has been arrested Tuesday after a drug bust by the Drug Enforcement Agency in South Carolina. Read the latest update here.
A Girl Scout troop was selling cookies outside in near-freezing weather Friday in South Carolina when a man approached their table and bought seven packs of the Girl Scout cookies. Then, he came back and bought the rest of them for a grand total of $540.
"When he told us to pack up all the cookies because he was going to buy them we were shocked. We stood there in shock for a little while," Kayla Dillard, the "cookie manager" of Troop 1574, told CBS News.
Dillard, whose 8-year-old daughter is a member of the troop, was with the girls as they participated in the annual, beloved cookie sale outside a local supermarket. She says it was around 34-degrees in Greenville, South Carolina, when the good Samaritan arrived.
"This man purchased seven packs of cookies. Gave the girls $40, told them to keep the change," Dillard posted Friday night on Facebook. "Then he came 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' $540 he spent on cookies. What an amazing soul!!!!"
The troop sold about 221 packages of cookies that night and Dillard says the number of packages the man, who didn't give his name, bought would have likely taken about another day and a half of efforts to sell. "We actually had to cancel some of our booth sales this weekend because we didn't have cookies to sell at the booth because he purchased them all," said Dillard. This season the troop has surpassed their goal of 3,200 boxes — selling about 5,000 so far, according to Dillard.
As for the good Samaritan, Dillard snapped a photo of him smiling with two girls in the troop, but he revealed little about himself. "The only information we got out of the man was that he owns several businesses and that he was going to take the cookies to the businesses," said Dillard.
Even though she didn't find out the benefactor's name, he gave off a great impression: "That man was just a very kind, sincere and humble man who loves children."
