14 DAY TRIAL // A waitress from Springfield has received a tip in the form of a winning lottery ticket worth thousands of dollars.
Aurora Kephart was given the gift by a customer who usually lets her choose unplayed tickets as her tip.
According to the Register Guard, 25-year-old Kephart has been working at Conway’s Restaurant and Lounge in Thurston for the past four years.
Her devotion paid off when the diner regular gave her a few tickets to choose from, and one of them was worth $17,500 (€12,900).
The benefactor has wished to remain anonymous, but he is also getting part of the prize.
“I just couldn’t not give him some of it,” Kephart says.
“I forced him to take it. I'm too humble for that. [...] I absolutely just want to pay it forward. I don't intend to keep all that money for myself,” she adds, as reported by ABC News.
She describes the patron refusing to taking back the winning ticket once she offered it to him. He even made her sign for it, so that no one else could cash it.
“The look on his face was incredible. [...] I automatically handed it back to him; it was his ticket,” she says.
The next day, the number of people at the diner increased exponentially, once news was out that she had won.
“The reaction (in the bar) was crazy. Everyone was so amped up. I mean how often does that happen somewhere like Thurston? [...] The bar is 80 percent regulars, so everyone knows everyone. People were so excited for me,” Kephart recalls.
She plans to pay off a few bills and change her sofa, but claims that these are the only things she needs.
Some of the money has been donated to a muscular dystrophy charity, but she intends to save the rest.