Watch Alabama supermarket employee get surprised with car

March 7th, 2017

Ladarius Horton got a ride to work Tuesday morning ready to take on the day with the same loyalty and hard work he's performed his job with for the past 10 years.

Thanks to that work ethic, he won't need a ride home. 

Horton, the frozen food and dairy manager at the 4th Avenue Supermarket in Bessemer, is "always upbeat, a hard worker and very conscientious," according to Gerry D'Alessandro, the grocery store's third generation owner. Those values are why D'Alessandro surprised him with a car in front of family and employees at the supermarket Tuesday morning.  

Horton walked outside thinking everyone was gathered for an upcoming promotion when D'Alessandro handed him a gift-wrapped box of bandages. Inside, Horton found keys to a white 2005 Ford Five Hundred sedan. The surprise left him speechless. 

"My girlfriend, she don't have to worry about dropping me off no more, so it helps a whole lot," Horton said outside the store. Horton lives in Midfield and has been without a car for two years. 

"Ladarius always goes above and beyond for us, so we wanted to do something to go above and beyond for him," said D'Alessandro. "I was trying to think what could I do that would make the biggest impact on the life of him and his family and this is what we came up with," he said.

Horton started working at the store as a dairy employee a week after he graduated high school in 2007. A few years later, he became the manager after the previous one retired. 

His mother Kizzy said that her family is proud of him. She stood alongside her son Marsell Horton and Mautrice Anderson, Ladarius' girlfriend, for the presentation.  "It's truly a blessing and he deserves it because he comes to work, he works hard and wanted to do something positive throughout his life - meaning to work, not be in the streets running around," she said.