“Is this real?!”: Melbourne waitress receives eyewatering tip
A young waitress in Melbourne was brought to tears after a customer left an incredibly generous tip.
The customer was fixing up the bill after his meal when he punched in an extra $10,000 into the EFTPOS machine at the Italian Restaurant Gilson in Melbourne’s South Yarra.
The waitress and student, Lauren, told 7NEWS she couldn’t believe her eyes.
“I made them say the number out loud, because I thought, what if I have just gotten too excited and I’ve stupidly read an extra zero, or something like that.”
“I keep going over it again and again in my head. The actual experience of it happening, second by second, was surreal and amazing.” She added.
Lauren wasn’t certain if she was even allowed to accept such a large sum.
Tips that the workers receive are typically shared between the staff, but the generous diner insisted that $7,000 go directly to Lauren and the $3,000 be distributed among the remaining staff.
According to 7NEWS, the tipper is a young, self-made cryptocurrency businessman who owns more than $120 million of property in Toorak.
“I am just extremely grateful, to know that they thought that much of my service is amazing,” Lauren said.
A fellow Gilson waitress, Charlotte Crow, told 7NEWS, “She came up to me crying, she was like ‘is this real? Was it a mistake, what do I do?’”
While Crow teased that she should have paid more attention to Lauren’s table, she said Lauren “is a really hard worker,” adding, “she deserves it.”
Other colleagues agreed, suggesting Lauren use the money to go on a well-earned vacation.
“I’m going to be honest, I’ve never been overseas, so the first thing that everyone was saying to me was to go on a holiday,” Lauren said.
“That money is just going to help, a lot.”
Image credit: Instagram