Good Samaritan helps Walmart customer

Mobile, Ala. (WALA) - The Mobile County Sheriff's Office is looking for a man, but it's not to arrest him.  They want to help him out.  

The man lost a valuable gift card. Thanks to a Good Samaritan and surveillance video, he may be able to get it back.

 It was two days after Christmas when someone came to the Saraland Walmart for a single purchase, a $200 gift card.  But, just a few hours later the card was lost.

 "He purchased it in Saraland, and went to the gas station at Lott and McCreary in Semmes. It either fell out of his wallet, or pocket, or out of the car, the the gentleman discovered it in the parking lot there,"  Sgt. Joe Mahoney said.

"Started to get in the car, and I just stepped on that receipt from Walmart, and it had the two piece gift card still stapled to it," William Smith said off camera.

The sheriff's office released surveillance video of the purchase hoping someone will recognize the man.

In the video you see an older man with white hair and a beard at the check out counter.  He's wearing a red Alabama t-shirt.

It might have been fairly easy to track the man down if he'd used a debit or credit card for the transaction, but he paid with cash.

Smith didn't want to talk on camera, but fortunately he wasn't at all hesitant about trying to get the card to it's owner,  even though it was money he probably could use himself.

"I just got my disability September, and it took me 17 months to get it.  I lived on $117 a month for 17 months," Smith said.

But Smith said honesty was instilled him him by his grandfather.

"He was just always a fair man," he said.

All of the clerks at the Circle K recognized the face of man in the picture FOX10 News showed them, they just don't know the man's name. They say he's a regular.

"He normally gets a hamburger all the way, a fountain drink, and he sits here almost every night and eats it," clerk Perissa Tolbert said.

Hopefully, he'll get something extra his next visit.

If you recognize the man please tell him to contact the Mobile County Sheriff's Office to claim his gift card. The number is 574-8633