Social media star gives away surprise car at east-side Walmart

Sara Thompson walked into the Arrowhead Parkway Walmart on Tuesday afternoon in search of creamer and paper towels.

She walked out as the owner of a new-to-her Kia Soul.

A few hours later, Thompson’s good fortune still hadn’t quite sunk in.

“At first, it was so surreal I was laughing hysterically, not believing that this was real,” said Thompson, a lifelong Sioux Falls-area resident and a survivor of a rare brain cancer. “I watch these videos, but I never thought he would be in South Dakota ever.”

The “he” Thompson was referring to is Jimmy Darts, a social media personality who travels the country doing random acts of kindness and posting the videos primarily on TikTok and Instagram. A Minnesota native, Darts first began posting videos as a teenager. His followers now help him with his mission by making donations so he can give money or gifts to strangers. In one case that received attention, Darts, now 27, helped a homeless man get off the streets.

“He does such great things, and it’s nice to watch his videos,” Thompson said.

Thompson and her significant other, Tremaine Bell, are among the nearly 12 million people who follow Darts on TikTok, never dreaming they would meet him. When he randomly approached them in Walmart, Thompson immediately knew who he was. She wasn’t sure if Bell would recognize Darts as quickly but said he proved to be a good sport.

“It was extremely shocking when he walked up to us,” Thompson said. “He wanted to blindfold us and take us to the parking lot. I was looking at him (Bell), do you want to do this? He said he recognized his (Darts’) voice, then he knew. He was looking at me in shock and thought we were being punked.”

Not at all. Instead, Thompson was given the keys to a low-mileage 2020 Kia Soul, a CUV that just minutes before had been on the Frankman Motor Co. lot. Darts walked into the used-car dealership Monday and proposed they split the cost of a car for his latest random act of kindness.

Cole Frankman, chief operating officer, didn’t hesitate. He was unfamiliar with Darts and his work, but others at the store knew him well.

“He gave me a spiel, and he gave me his ideals behind it — giving things back to people who have positive attitudes and are nice to him,” Frankman said. “He asked if we could help making something happen, and within an hour, we had a car picked out.”

Participating in the random act of kindness benefited Frankman Motor too.

“Everybody at my store had a blast doing it, my finance guys, the sales manager, the sales guys. I saw the impact it had on everybody from a morale standpoint,” Frankman said. “And it went to the perfect person.”

When Thompson and Bell walked into Frankman with Darts to sign the papers transferring the car ownership, Frankman recognized her from the years she worked at the Phillips Avenue Diner in downtown Sioux Falls. Someone else knew that Bell also had cooked there.

Thompson has spent her working life in the restaurant industry. In addition to the Diner, she has worked at Minervas, The Barrel House and now can be found at the Crooked Pint Ale House near the Denny Sanford Premier Center.

After years in restaurant management, Thompson now serves as wait staff when her health allows. She recently has undergone three surgeries to deal with pain caused by an affected autoimmune system. That, in turn, is the aftermath of the intensive chemotherapy she went through.

“I’ve been in remission from brain cancer for eight years,” Thompson said. “I had an extremely rare form of lymphoma of the brain.”

Thompson faces her health issues then and now with a positive attitude — “Everything happens for a reason,” she said. “These last three surgeries that I had really, really helped with the pain aspect. That was a great thing. I couldn’t be happier with where we’re at right now and the quality of my life and how things have unfolded.”

Now, she’ll drive to work and doctor appointments in her Kia Soul, a soft-gray-blue that changes hues in the sunlight. Her old car, a 2012 Hyundai Elantra, will be gifted to her son Arrion Bowen, a spring graduate of Brandon Valley High School, so he has a car at college.

Thompson chatted with Darts while they were at Frankman Motor. He had intended to spend one night in Sioux Falls but was compelled to stay a little longer. Family had brought him to Sioux Falls. A cousin travels with him as Darts’ cameraman; they were visiting his brother, a student at the University of Sioux Falls.

“He just said he felt compelled to give a car away,” Thompson said Darts told her.

And she needed a few supplies, so she coaxed a reluctant Bell into joining her on a Walmart run that occurred later than she originally had intended.

As it turned out, her timing was impeccable.