On December 2, within the space of twenty minutes, Jaime Pourier went from crying tears of anguish and loss to weeping with gratitude.

A resident of the Twin Lakes area, the 24-year-old single mother had taken her young daughter to the doctor, afterwards heading to the Rite-Aid on 336th in Federal Way to fulfill her prescription. Hearing that it would be a half-hour wait, Pourier and her daughter walked across the parking lot to the Safeway to pick up a few essentials.

"Kaylana wanted a fresh donut, and well, I did too," said Pourier. "We needed other things; milk, coffee, half and half, etcetera."

When the two got in front of the cashier, Pourier went for her wallet - and it was gone.

Mother and daughter rushed back to the Rite-Aid to ask if she had left it on the high counter of the pharmacy department. The pharmacist said no, but remembered seeing Pourier put her wallet back into her purse.

Distraught, the Pouriers retraced their steps at the Safeway.

"Every last dime I had was in that wallet - I was on my way to the bank after shopping to deposit the money. I work as a waitress at Denny's, so it was all my tip money from the past week. From that I was to pay the rest of my rent, my phone bill, cable bill, Christmas stuff - the whole deal."

Pourier called the Federal Way Police Department and filed a report of the theft of a $50 wallet and $500 in cash. The wallet she was carrying did not contain her driver's license and credit cards.

Review of the police report revealed that the police would contact Ms. Pourier after reviewing surveillance tapes.

"To date, the FWPD has not asked us for the tapes," said Jason Moulton, loss prevention director for the Seattle Division of Safeway Inc.

Meanwhile, Pourier conducted her own investigation, walking the aisles asking every customer if they had seen her wallet.

"While we do employ surveillance cameras, they don't cover the entire store, they are primarily for risk management," said Moulton. Mostly used in instances of injury claims, "our surveillance doesn't have clarity at that level of detail [enough to record a theft such as the one in this case]," Moulton explained. "Police could review the tapes as they do record people coming and going, and would likely provide helpful clues."

As Pourier looked around the store, she realized that her wallet had probably sat atop her unzipped purse in the cart's child seat.

Kaylana then reported that she had seen a man walk closely by their cart.

"Dumb move, I know. I didn't think about being robbed while grocery shopping," said Pourier.

When Pourier realized that her wallet was gone for good, she broke down. A sympathetic manager offered Pourier her bag of groceries for free.

Pourier and her daughter slowly walked to their car and Pourier sat in the driver's seat, unable to drive in her misery.

"Everything came crashing down on me. On November 2, I had a miscarriage, and was out of work for three weeks. I had just gone back to work and it was all of my money," Pourier told the Federal Way News last week. "The beginning of November, we moved to a larger apartment in anticipation of the baby. So I had to have that money for rent."

"I just sat there crying and wondering what I was going to do. I called my mom and was bawling to her, when a woman knocked on the window," Pourier said.

A petite, pretty woman with brown hair, apparently in her late 30s or early 40s, was shopping at the Safeway and witnessed her ordeal. The anonymous woman's car was also parked next to Pourier in the parking lot.

"Honey, are you ok?" the woman asked when Pourier rolled down her window.

The woman told Pourier that she herself had recently had her credit cards stolen and she knew what Pourier was feeling. She asked Pourier her name.

The mystery women then took out her checkbook and wrote a check for $500.

Flabbergasted, Pourier at first refused. The woman kindly insisted and Pourier reluctantly accepted the check and asked the woman her name.

"It doesn't matter. I'm sorry that happened to you. Merry Christmas."

With that the woman got in her car and drove away.

Stunned by her sudden turn of fortune, Pourier sat for another ten minutes in the parking lot and held Kaylana.

"You don't know what she did for me. Suddenly everything was going to be ok, it was more than the money."

When Pourier's mother, Lori Miller, heard the whole story, she asked her daughter if she had written down the information on the woman's check before depositing it. She had.

Miller called the number and a young man answered whom Miller assumed was the mystery woman's son. Miller left a message, saying that she wished to thank his mother for her amazing kindness to Jaime.

No one returned her call.

Miller tried again a few days later and this time a woman answered. As soon as Miller identified herself, she heard a click and the line went dead. A subsequent call went unanswered.

"She obviously wanted to stay anonymous, so I didn't call her again. I sure hope we didn't bother her, I was just so overwhelmed by the kindness, I wanted to thank her, mother to mother," said Miller.

"I hope she reads this, because my daughter, my mom and I would like to thank her from our hearts and wish her the very best in the New Year." said Pourier. "She is truly an angel."