I do realize that often we end up publishing things that don’t exactly cast humanity in the best light. It’s possible that an unpleasant portion of stories can be used as misanthrope fuel, and sometimes that gets me down. But not today. Today I’d just like to relay to you a simple story of people, kindness, and tires.


Here’s what happened: a single mom and her little daughter came into an America’s Tire outlet in Hemet, California, because she had a flat tire on her Silverado.


The woman, named Alex, actually had bigger, much more expensive issues with her tires, since the three non-flat tires were all bald and worn to the point where the tire shop employees felt they were unsafe, and Alex would need to buy a full new set of tires, which would run about $1,400.

Alex was unable to afford the tires, and as a result was, as you can imagine, pretty upset. Nobody wants to drive around on unsafe tires, possibly least of all a single mom with a little kid.

That’s where Phil comes in. Only identified himself by his first name, like Cher or Charo, this 70-year-old man just stepped up and offered to buy the tires for the mom and child.

The incident was witnessed by the whole tire shop, and was described in a Facebook post by one of the other patrons:

“I’m at the America’s tire Company on Florida. This man 70 years old, named Phil was there for tire service. A young lady named Alex with a little girl came in for a flat tire repair. Come to find out the tires on her Silverado were all bald and in need of replacement. The girl was stressed because she couldn’t afford the tires. Phil, without skipping a beat said “I’ll buy all 4 tires for her”. The entire store was shocked. Alex said thank you about 100 times. Phil was mister smooth and humble, with a big heart. This man blessed this young lady and simply asked that she Pay it forward. I absolutely love this. He dropped almost $1,500. Probably saved this girls life and her kids.”


Well, damn. That’s fantastic. What a generous, kind person this Phil is. There’s not really anything more to this story, and there doesn’t need to be. It’s just someone being extraordinarily kind to someone else, and that’s just a good thing to hear about, periodically.

Now, one question, though: doesn’t $1,400 seem kind of pricey for Silverado tires? I mean, I know tires are important, but you can get new tires for a Silverado (the year and model aren’t specified, but let’s say it’s a 2010 Silverado 1500) for around $170 or so per tire, for around $680, half of what she was quoted at America’s Tire there.


Look, here’s two options from a major tire retailer

So, I’m not sure if there were special circumstances regarding these tires, but it’s worth noting that she seems to have been quoted a pretty high price for tires. Maybe she has special wheels or something?


Regardless, that doesn’t change the main point of the story: you’re a class act, Phil.