Waitress Gets Life-Changing $1,000 Tip, Restaurant Owner Makes Her Return It

Shaina Brown of Raleigh, N.C., got the tip of a lifetime...until it was taken away from her

By John Boone Jun 10, 2014 6:22 PMTags
Waffle HouseWaffle House/Facebook

It's like something out of a movie!

A waitress working the overnight shift at a Waffle House in Raleigh, N.C., serves a random businessman at 3 a.m. on Mother's Day. The man, who only orders a patty melt, tells the waitress that he is going to "bless her." 

He leaves her a $1,500 tip, $1K for herself and $500 to give to "a haggard-looking woman at a table nearby." And then he gets into a cab and leaves, after telling our waitress, "You have a good spirit."

It's like something out of a movie that has a zero percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and all the reviews say, "Great movie until the ending. THE ENDING SUCKS. WORST TWIST EVER."

Shaina Brown, a single mother of three who has worked at the Waffle House for seven years, in addition to another job, says that because her kind stranger left the large tip on his credit card, the restaurant made her return it.

Josh Shaffer, a journalist for the Charlotte Observer looked into the story and was told company policy dictates all large tips be refunded to patrons and "generous tippers are asked to tip again by cash or check" "in case the customer decides to dispute the tip later or ask for a refund."

"I feel like they stole from me," Brown told the Observer. At the very least, that sort of "regular procedure" makes it less likely that people will spontaneously charitable, if they're just going to get hassled about it later.

Luckily, Shaffer was able to track down the businessman, who said he'd write that check.

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