Five days after the tragic car crash that took his life, stories and anecdotes of Paul Walker's good nature are still emerging from the woodwork as fans mourn his shocking death. The latest: Former Santa Barbara jewelry store clerk, Irene King, revealed to CBS that Walker once anonymously purchased a $9000 engagement ring for a couple who was browsing rings in the store, after discovering that the man was an Iraqi war veteran.
"She saw something that she really, really liked, but he said, 'Honey, I can’t afford that,'" King said of the couple, before adding that the "something" was a $9000 engagement ring. "He called the manager and he said, 'Umm, the ring that those people are looking at – put it on my tab'...soon after that, he just left." When the couple asked who had bought the ring for them, the store just said it was an anonymous gift.
After King shared her story, the couple who Walker bought the ring for—Kristen and Kyle Upham—spoke to CBS as well about Walker's generosity. Apparently, though they'd never received confirmation from the store that the ring was purchased by Walker, they had suspected it after Walker approached them in the store.
"I noticed there was someone else in there, but didn’t give it much thought, and we started looking at rings and whatnot, and he kept saying, 'Go bigger' and I kept saying, 'No, look at the prices,'" Kristen shared. "When we were talking, we exchanged names and talked about what each of us did...and when he found out Kyle just came back from Iraq—I remember seeing the look in his face. He kind of transformed."
Shortly after the couple left, the store called them to return and gave them the ring Walker had purchased. "One of the ladies came out holding a bag and just said, 'Here’s your ring.' I think both of our mouths dropped." When they asked who had bought the ring, the store declined to say—but the couple long suspected it was Walker, something that was confirmed when King shared her story.
"It’s still to this day the most generous thing anyone has ever done for me," Kristen told CBS. "His real life speaks volumes of his character...he really did put his money where his mouth is and did good for this world."
Walker was tragically killed in a car crash this past Saturday in Santa Clarita. He was 40.
[via Time]
