Kari Anthony, a single mother and bartender at Quaker Steak and Lube in Grand Island, Nebraska, thought there must have been a mistake when she looked at her customer’s receipt. Nothing else seemed out of the ordinary when she served a truck driver who seemed like any number of average customers she had met over the years. The man had been paying for each drink as he ordered it, and Anthony let him know he didn’t need to do that and she could bring him one tab when he was finished. They engaged in pleasant conversation until it was time for him to go and Anthony brought him his $89.72 bill. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw $1000.00 on the tip line.
Woke up still in shocked this really happened!!! Feeling extremely blessed!!! pic.twitter.com/JqP2HDKNE1
— Kari Anthony (@newklynn) September 4, 2015
Anthony told the Independent that most drivers will leave a tip of $2 to $5. Something this generous is completely unheard of. She stopped the man and told him that she appreciated his gesture, but he really didn’t need to offer so much money. The man insisted and refused to take his money back. Anthony went and asked her shift manager to speak with the kind hearted driver.
“I was really nervous and shocked,” Anthony said. After a 10 minute conversation, her manager returned and told Anthony, who was physically shaking, that the driver was “dead serious and insisted on wanting to leave the tip.”
The driver had simply enjoyed his time with Anthony. When he learned that she was a single mother, the driver asked her to take the money and do something special with her children, something they wouldn’t normally get to do. Anthony plans on taking her kids to the Nebraska State Fair this weekend. “They got to go to the fair and play games and all the other stuff,” Anthony told the Independent. “Normally, because of situations, I would have not been able to do that. But I was able to because of that gentleman. I am just extremely grateful.”