EDMONTON -- An Edmonton Good Samaritan is being thanked by an Alberta expat and Hollywood actor for their generosity.
Les Thompson, a south Edmonton Costco gas bar supervisor, was working this week when a customer's card wouldn't read at several pumps.
"She seemed a little frustrated, little flustered, and I said, 'Well, why don’t I just fill it up for ya?'” Thompson told CTV News Edmonton.
“She wanted to come back and pay me the next day and whatever, I said, 'No, just pay it forward. And that’s the best that you can do.'”
Little did he know the struggling customer was the mother of Edmonton-raised Firefly, Castle, and The Rookie star Nathan Fillion.
Thompson's wife would make the connection for him after the actor wrote a thank you on Instagram.
"Les? That woman was my mother. You restore my faith in humanity, sir," Fillion wrote.
But Thompson said he hardly thought anything of the gesture, which he's done a time or two before.
“Here at the gas station we see it a lot – just people frustrated. They’re out of sync, they’re out of a routine… I just felt this lady needs help and I need to help her.”
But what did touch the Edmontonian's heart was Fillion following through on Thompson's ask to pay it forward: the actor said he and his dad were sending three iPads and headphones to a local seniors' facility so that residents can connect with their families.
"Right now, we could all stand to be a little less afraid, and a little more Les," Fillion wrote on Instagram.
Thompson responded: “If Nathan’s seeing this, thank you for what you’ve done.”
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Darcy Seaton
