Paul Walker paid for an Iraq war veteran’s engagement ring, it has been revealed.
Kyle Upham, the veteran, walked into a jewelry store in 2004 looking for an engagement ring with his then-fiance Kristen.
The pair were looking for rings when they found what they believed to be the perfect one, but it was $10,000.
“Honey, I can’t afford that,” Upham told Kristen.
Walker was in the same store, Bailey Banks and Biddle Jewelers in Santa Barbara, California.
Irene King, a sales associate at the store, recalled what happened next.
“He called the manager and he said, ‘Umm, the ring that those people are looking at – put it on my tab,’” King told CBS. “Soon after that, he just left.”
King marveled at the gift.
“To do something like that to a perfect stranger is just unbelievable,” she said.
Paul Walker at a Los Angeles Dodgers game in 2011. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)
The Uphams were also impressed.
“It’s still to this day the most generous thing anyone has ever done for me,” Kristen Upham told CBS.
The couple remember conversing with Walker, discussing who they were and talking about what each of them did.
“And when he found out Kyle just came back from Iraq — I remember seeing the look in his face,” Kristen said. “He kind of transformed.”
“When we hand down the ring through the generations, there will always be a story to tell,” Kyle said.
“His real life speaks volumes of his character,” Kristen said. “He really did put his money where his mouth is and did good for this world.”
Walker died on November 30 after the car he was riding in crashed.
He has also been remembered for his extensive work through his charity Reach Out Worldwide, which specialized in small but highly mobile responses to disasters.
Fans pay tribute to Paul Walker at the site of the car crash that killed him on December 1. (David Buchan/Getty Images)
