When you walk into the store with thousands of dollars to spend, you would expect a store associate would want to eagerly help you part with your hard earned money. But that is not always the case it seems. When Cecil Rogers walked into Walmart ready to spend all his cash, he ended up getting a blessing from the person behind the checkout counter by her refusing the help him.

The incident occurred last December when Rogers’s was looking forward to spending Christmas with his grandchildren. They were all coming over to his Elmwood Place home but before they arrived, Rogers received a call from someone claiming to be his grandson. That’s when things started to get rather mysterious.

“Papaw,” the voice said on the phone. “This is your oldest grandson. I’m in trouble.”

The “grandson” told Rogers about how he had gotten into a car accident. He allegedly hit a pregnant woman’s car. The grandson told Rogers that he was charged with drunk driving and was being held in jail.

After the “grandson” told Rogers his sob story, a “lawyer” came on the phone and instructed Rogers to go to his local Walmart. The lawyer told Rogers to bring $2,300 and wire the money to pay the bond.

Rogers was horrified. He didn’t want his grandson to be in trouble, so he gathered up the money and went to his local Walmart to wire the cash for his grandson.

Sadly, scams like this happen all the time and Rogers would have become the latest victim – except an unlikely hero stepped in to save him. The Walmart store associate heard why Rogers was wiring the money and refused to let him do it.

Cashier Audrella Taylor became suspicious once she heard Rogers reasons. He tried to change her mind and told her about how his grandson was in jail and needed $2300 wired for bond money.

She stopped him in his tracks, “I’m not going to let you send that money. I think you are being scammed.”

Instead of letting him send the money, Taylor instructed Rogers to call his grandchildren and ask if they’re in jail. He did and learned that there was no car accident. Instead, Rogers’ grandson was safe at college getting educated.

Taylor knew that Rogers was being scammed when she found out the boy’s mother, Rogers’s daughter had not been contacted. Why would the grandson or the police not contact his mother first? Why would they bypass the parent to speak to the grandparent? That sounded like a red flag to Taylor.

When the Walmart manager Dominic Gross learned about Taylor’s heroism, he congratulated her. And to follow her example, Gross is now training all cashier at his Walmart location to spot suspected scams before they happen.

Instead of being scammed, Rogers had money to spend on his grandkids at Christmas. Thank you Lord for kind people that help us in our time of need.