他们被称为“分期付款处天使”（layaway angels），因为他们帮助正在努力挣脱困境的人们付款购买礼物与必需品。

值此经济衰退的困难时期，许多较贫困的美国人求助于一个叫做“分期累积预付购货”（layaway）的系统来购买用品，就是先在商店保留一件商品，然后每月或每周支付部分货款，直至全款付清后才取回商品。然而，在全美国有许多慷慨的人们前往商店的分期付款处，为那些在经济上捉襟见肘的顾客支付购物的余款。据Kmart商场发言人表示，该零售商场中总额超过40万美元的1000多个“分期累积预付购货”账户的余额已由那些崇尚利他主义的人付清。

绝大多数“分期付款处天使”从未与他们所帮助的人谋面，一位捐助者告诉一全国性新闻机构的记者，“真正的慈善是匿名的”。他并表示，他希望获得的最好的感谢是获知有更多人加入了“分期付款天使”的行列。

Angels appear in the darnedest places.

They’re called “layaway angels” because they help people struggling to pay for gifts and necessities.

In these tough economic times, many poorer Americans have resorted to reserving a purchase and claiming it only after they have completed paying for it on a monthly or weekly basis — a system called “layaway.” But across the United States, generous people have joined the financially strapped in the lines at the layaway offices at various stores and paid the balances for some customers struggling to make the purchases. For example, more than 1,000 layaway accounts adding up to more than $400,000 have been settled by altruistic individuals at Kmart stores, according to that retailer’s spokesperson.

Most layaway angels have never met the people they help. One donor told a national news reporter that “true charity is anonymous” and said the best thanks he could receive would be learning that more people joined the league of layaway angels.