Kansas City, Mo ? Geneva Fields of Kansas City had finished pumping gas into her 14-year-old car Tuesday when a man in a red shirt approached.

He wished her a Merry Christmas and said, “Ma’am, this is for you.” He thrust a $100 bill into her hand.

“No!” Fields exclaimed. “No! God, no! You’ve got to be kidding. Is it real? Can I hug you?”

Her benefactor chuckled. He reached into his pocket. Out came another $100.

Fields began to cry. Secret Santa, an anonymous Jackson County businessman who gets his thrills giving away $100 bills, dashed for his car.

“Wish him,” Fields, 45, started to say, before a sob interrupted her. “Tell him I said, ‘Thank you so very much.'”

She paused.

“I heard about him, but I didn’t believe.”

Motivation

Dozens of people in the Kansas City area learned Tuesday that Secret Santa is indeed real. For the 24th year, he’s spreading Christmas cheer through poor neighborhoods. He plans to distribute $40,000 this week, on top of $25,000 he gave away last week in Southern California’s San Diego County.

He visited San Diego because wildfires destroyed thousands of homes there this fall. He visits Kansas City streets every year because Jackson County is his home — and where he once was poor. Tuesday, he even visited the Kansas City barber who used to cut his hair on credit, back when Santa had trouble paying.

Targeted donations

He began the morning at Metro North Shopping Center.

Wearing a Santa hat and a false beard, he walked into the Limited Too, where employee Tracy Brazelton was re-organizing clothes. Tipped by Kansas City firefighters, Santa knew that Brazelton, a mother of three, was about to lose her home near Smithville because she’d fallen behind on the payments.

A day earlier, Santa telephoned Brazelton and promised to help her find a house. She asked his name. He told her that wasn’t important.

“Merry Christmas,” Santa now told her. “We’re all here from the Fire Department, and we’ve got something special for you.”

He held up a certificate, which named her “Mom of the Year” for displaying the courage, determination and willingness to help others in light of difficult circumstances. Santa gave the award in honor of John Tvedten, a Kansas City battalion chief who died fighting a fire in 1999.

Brazelton’s chin quivered. She wiped a tear from her cheek. Jackson County Sheriff Tom Phillips, one of Santa’s escorts, handed over $5,000.

“This is from Santa and all his elves,” Phillips said.

“I don’t know what to say,” said a still-crying Brazelton, who attends college and works while raising girls aged 11, 9 and 5. “Thank you is not enough.”

Santa later gave away another Tvedten award, this one to Larry and Marilyn Perkins, parents of 20-year-old Benjamin Perkins, who died in a fire last year. The Perkinses received $1,000, which Marilyn Perkins said they’d use on a headstone.

Suprise gifts

Santa also surprised people at bus stops, in pawn shops, in parking lots and at coin-operated laundries. A barber on Prospect received $100 and asked, “What’s the catch?” A woman outside an Independence Avenue store quipped, “Is it real?”

A man from Arkansas carrying a cardboard sign that said, “Very hungry, please help,” backpedaled when Santa jumped out of a car in traffic and began asking questions. Santa gave him $300 to get home for Christmas.

“You scared me to death,” said the man, Henry Mills, 32.

In a Northeast area neighborhood, Santa spotted a young family walking into a small home. He popped out of his car and doled out $400.

“It will make Christmas a lot better,” Jason Polito, 29, said. “He’s a saint.”

A few blocks away, Santa noticed a 57-year-old woman in a dilapidated, 25-year-old truck. She received $500. At two laundries, Santa and his elves gave all customers $100 each.

That included Mary Catherine Terry, 54, a homeless woman whose birthday falls on Christmas.

“This is a lot of money,” Terry said, smiling. “I could use some shoes, a blanket and a coat. I don’t have no apartment.”

Maybe, she said, she’d find a hotel room for a couple of nights.

For Christmas, anyway, she won’t have to sleep out in the cold.