North Carolina Restaurant Customer Leaves $1,000 Tip on $14 Bill
Chrisi Kemp said she had a breakdown before going to work.
— -- An extra generous tip came on the best possible day for one North Carolina bartender.
Medical bills were piling up for Chrisi Kemp after her daughter got sick and an appliance had just broken in her Raleigh home.
She told ABC11 that she had a breakdown right before coming into work at the One Whirled Cafe last Thursday.
Her evening got brighter very quickly when a male customer, who wants to remain anonymous, settled his $14.01 tab by adding a $1,000 tip.
"I was a little taken back. I went and got the owners immediately because I didn't know what to do," she told ABC11.
Both she and the owners checked with the man before he left the restaurant and he reportedly said he believes in good karma and thought Kemp was due for some.
"We were thrilled for her," chef owner Chris Ortlepp told ABC News. "There was obviously a little disbelief but at the same time we were happy it happened."
Ortlepp said that it was the customer's first time in the restaurant, which has only been open for a little over three months.
"He was serious about it and dead set on it," Ortlepp said of the tipper.
She wound up getting far less after the IRS took 43% out of that tip and she shared some of the remainder with her colleagues since it was a slow night.
"I'm still speechless about some parts of it. I just can't even believe. I'm thankful for it because I needed the money," she said. "I do what I can I'm a very giving person myself. I just can't believe it happened to me."
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