A Waffle House waitress in Raleigh couldn’t have imagined what happened on Mother’s Day at 3 a.m.
A patron eating at her restaurant called Shaina Brown over and said, “I’m going to bless you tonight.”
The man paid his bill with a credit card and wrote $1,500 on the tip line. His only request was that Brown share $500 with a haggard-looking woman at a table nearby.
The unknown tipper then told Brown, “You have a good spirit,” and left in a taxi.
The 26 year old single mother tried to wrap her brain around what just happened. She could get those new shoes for her three kids; fix the broken transmission on her car, and pay some bills.
The only problem was…. management didn’t let her keep it!
Instead, they sent it back to the generous patron.
“I feel like they stole from me,” said Brown. “They did exactly what they teach us not to do.”
Waffle House spokeswoman, Kelly Thrasher defended the restaurants’ actions citing a policy where large tips are refunded to patrons as a regular procedure. She said generous tippers are asked to tip again by cash or check. The restaurant handles it that way, she explained, in case the customer decides to dispute the tip later or ask for a refund.
UPDATE:
The company issued a statement on its Facebook page after the story reached a nationwide audience.
“This has given us cause to review our procedures so we can get tips to our associates quicker in these unusual situation.,” said the Waffle House post. “It says a lot about this customer that he was willing to tip our associate this generous amount. Our intentions were for the associate to get her tip all along. We are sorry that our associate and the customer are having to go through this.”
The customer, who wished to stay nameless, later sent a check for $1,000 to Brown.
