A bakery in Calgary's East Village got a big surprise over the long weekend when one customer left a tip that came out to more than a 1,000% percent gratuity.
On Saturday morning workers at The Sidewalk Citizen, a bakery in the city's downtown core, say that a customer came into the shop and bought $49 worth of baked goods and then left a tip of $525.
Staff say they didnt' notice the incident until they were cashing out at the end of the day. That's when they realized they had a lot more money on hand than they expected.
Owners say they think the big tip was the result of an error by the customer and they held on to the money, hoping the customer would come back to claim it.
"I would assume that most people would go over their statement at least once a month," said Aviv Fried, the owner of The Sidewalk Citizen. "So we will probably hold on to it for a month, I guess."
The owners tried to contact the customer, who used a bank card to make the purchase, but they didn't have a name or phone number, just a bank card number.
They also contacted Royal Bank and asked it to contact the customer to come and claim a refund, but were originally told that the bank doesn't contact customers in these kind of situations.
After repeated calls from CTV News, the bank said it was a misunderstanding and they did manage to contact the customer.
Pat Benedict says she was surprised to learn about her debit mistake.
"They said, do you know you left about a $525 tip? I said no, I didn't know I did that," said Benedict.
On Tuesday afternoon, Benedict returned to the bakery for her refund.
"Somebody is looking after me I'd say. Yeah it makes me feel good yes it does," she said.
Benedict say what happened to her could be a lesson for us all to slow down a little and know what you're paying for before you hit the okay button on the debit machine.
(With files from Kevin Green)
