Local home-good and grocery stores used to be considered safe spaces, but in recent years, they’ve become a prime location for sex traffickers to target children. From Target to IKEA, “stranger danger” alerts have been popping up at retailers across the country.
So it’s no surprise that Alyssa Hacker was a bit concerned when she saw an older man inching closer to her son in a Fort Smith, Arkansas Target this weekend. But in an endearing turn of events, the mother witnessed an unlikely exchange that restored her faith in humanity like never before.
“This momma just cried in the middle of Target,” she confessed in her viral Facebook post.
“We were at Target waiting on Grammi and we found some dinosaurs,” Alyssa continued. “Owen grabbed all three and we were trying to pick out which one he wanted when Owen abruptly yelled ‘HI’ at this older man walking past us.”
The gentleman’s ears perked up at the sound of the little one emphatically beckoning his attention.
“Hey sweet boy,” he responded, as he happily turned around to play dinosaurs with the toddler.
“With this crazy world we live in, I was a little hesitant as to how close he was with Owen,” admitted Alyssa as she watched the interaction unfold.
But the moment that anxious thought crossed her mind, Owen’s new friend slayed her fears with the sweetest of gestures:
“The man got his wallet out and pulled a $20 out, he put it in Owens pocket on his shirt and said ‘I just lost my 2-year-old grandson last week. You take this money and buy this boy all three dinosaurs’ and rubbed Owen’s back, wiped his tears and walked off. After Owen yelled ‘thank you’ the gentleman turned around and yelled boomer sooner!”
Facebook
Needless to say, the tears trickling down his cheeks led to a mascara-destroying, waterfall outpour from this overwhelmed mama. Flooded with gratitude, the Oklahoma mom couldn’t help but share her unexpected encounter with the angel in Arkansas.
“There is still some good in this world 
😭 ,” she signed off the post that has now been shared over 103,000 times.
Commenters across the web couldn’t help but feel the same way…
Praise God for beautiful strangers who choose to be a blessing to others in the midst of their brokenness.
