After 180 diners at a Florida restaurant received a free meal from a stranger on Sunday night, locals (and soon, the Internet) were buzzing that the generous benefactor was the 84-year-old woman who recently won the largest Powerball jackpot in history.
While the woman who picked up the nearly $2,600 tab at Buddy Freddy's in Plant City resembled lottery winner Gloria C. MacKenzie of nearby Zephyrhills, Fla., it turned out to simply be an anonymous kind soul helping the lucky diners hit their own little jackpot on the dinner bill.
"It was not her," Buddy Freddy's manager Stephanie Reaves said on Friday. "It turns out it was another angel to come in here and spend that kind of money."
The woman came with a younger man and another woman and ate a meal in the early evening on Sunday, according to Reaves. After leaving, they returned and the woman said she was picking up the tab for 180 diners while declining to give her name. She also left $50 tips for five servers as diners stood up and applauded and thanked her, which Reaves said she had never seen in her 35-year restaurant career. While the woman was still in the restaurant, Reaves and another employee pulled up a picture of MacKenzie online to see if it was the local woman who just claimed a $590 million jackpot.
"We looked for Miss Gloria online and it was not her," Reaves said. "She looked similar, but it wasn't her. We also went and asked the woman (if she was the Powerball winner), and she said no. Plus, you knew they weren't from around here. They had to be from the West or up North.
"The reason she bought so many meals is because she met so many nice people, and she wasn't used to that," Reaves explained. "Down South, we'll come up and hug you for no reason and are just friendly people. When they left and got down the road, I think they thought, 'Let's go back and bless those people."'
The real MacKenzie has not been in Buddy Freddy's before to Reaves's knowledge.
"She probably doesn't even know where we are," Reaves said. "She lives such a common life, she's probably scared to go out after winning."
Like someone previously said, the manager might have been looking for free publicity for his restaurant
No surprise here. I wasn't fooled for a minute. That lady is not going to be buying anyone's lunches.....
eating them maybe, but NOT buying them.......
^^^^^ROFL!!!!!
Oh, they would've KNOWN if it were GLORIA! She'd been the one breaking in line at the buffet counter.
It really could have been anyone, $2,600 is a bill that a lot of people can afford to pay its not like a million
In my part of the country if you go around hugging people for no reason they lock you away in the funny farm!
A few more people ,...........should pass it forward ,......................it would be a little easier on the dance floor ,..doing the O'bomba to the IRS band,.........................wiggle,...wiggle......wiggle
Nice story...angels do exist !!!
It still could be her. Who can you believe? I think todd needs to go down south and get to the bottom of this.
Its too coincidental.
"We asked her if it was her and she said no." Oh that satisfies me.
Maybe she just wanted to remain anonymous?
With the incessant discussion about anonymity on LP, would you be suprised if she said no?
When you win the jackpot and people comes up to you and asks "are you the one who is just won 500 million" are you going to say yes to everybody?
Nice gesture in todays world.
whomever the kind soul was, shows that are still nice people out in the world
An Angel indeed
Kindness is its own reward
LOL. As it should be. Who goes around hugging perfect strangers? I wouldn't want any Tom, Dick or Harry coming up off the street hugging me. They should either be sent to a padded room in Bellevue or arrested for molestation.
If a stranger hugged me the first thing I would do is check to see if my wallet was still there.
Yeah whoever it was, was very kind to pay for everyones meals and tip the staff so well. It was a nice thing to do.
In my area , you don't want to be hugging just anyone, unless you ask for
permission . I heard of people paying for people food especially around
the holidays .
How was dinner tonight?............. "I got bed bugs, crabs, and lice"
Th-ems delicatesses down south
According to the National Enquirer it was Powerball winner Gloria Mackenzie.
Wow if she's not a lottery winner. She must be extremely kind to bless those people. I hope to meet a person like her, not to treat me for a meal but someone who knows how to appreciate the kindness of people or better yet I should try to be like her.