After a tough few days, a server at a Florida restaurant was shocked to receive a $5,000 tip from a customer who had ordered a small meal last week.
However, there is a darker side to the seemingly heartwarming story that took place in Clearwater Beach and was first reported by WFTS.
The server, whose dog had died that week, thought that the customer had heard the news and taken pity on her, but it turns out the woman who left the sizable tip had charged it to her boyfriend's credit card as revenge because he didn’t buy her a plane ticket home to Buffalo, New York, WTSP reported.
After an argument with her boyfriend Michael Crane over the ticket, Serina Wolfe, 24, went to the Clear Sky Beachside Cafe in Clearwater Beach on June 27 around 9:30 a.m. and ordered a meal for $55.37, which she purchased on his credit card, adding the more-than-generous $5,000 tip.
When Crane questioned Wolfe about the charge she reportedly denied making it and her boyfriend reported it as fraudulent. That was too late for the restaurant, which had already paid the server the tip.
Meanwhile, when interviewed by police, Wolfe reportedly admitted that she had used her boyfriend's credit card to pay for the meal and the massive tip. She was promptly charged with grand theft, a felony. Her boyfriend told police he suspected she was “drunk or trying to get back at him.”
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