A pregnant waitress was reduced to tears by an anonymous police officer's stunning bill.
You rarely hear about a police officer making the news for doing his or her job. In the news, “if it bleeds it leads,” so most of the time we hear about officers there has been a terrible tragedy.
That's why this story out of New Jersey is so important.
Courtney English, 23, is nearly eight months pregnant and works on her feet as a waitress at the Lamp Post Diner in Clementon, New Jersey. Although she is unmarried, her father says her boyfriend is supportive, and will play a part in the child’s life.
However, making ends meet is a challenge for English and she intends to take six to eight weeks off work to look after her soon-to-be-born daughter.
On Friday, February 15, a Voorhees Township police officer ate lunch at the diner, and although his bill was only $8.75, he left a $100 tip and a note for English: “Enjoy your first. You will never forget it.”
The wonderful gesture sent English crying to her boss.
“One of the cashiers told me he left me $100 and I started crying,” she told The New York Post. “He had already left at that point.”
“He must have overheard my conversation with other customers when I told them that it was my first baby and that I was going out of work soon,” English continued.
Her father, Brian Cadigan, posted a photo of the receipt on Facebook along with a touching message.
“It made her whole year,” Cadigan told The New York Post. “There’s a lot of bad stuff said about police and here’s one officer who went out of his way to make a generous offer just to say, ‘Hey, it’s your first and enjoy it,’” he said.
Here’s Cadigan’s entire Facebook post:
You always hear about how Bad the Police are, How They treated you like dirt, how they are on a Power Trip, Yes I am sure there are some bad apples, but most of them are just doing their jobs, they deal with the worst of society every day and have to keep going back everyday and deal with it all over again. They risk their lives each day just to do their job, of trying to enforce the laws that they didn't make.
They are human, and do many good things everyday that most people will never know about, like giving the young mother a warning instead of a ticket, because they know she is struggling, or locking up an abusive spouse, and giving the abused information to get out of the relationship safely.
Or just being a nice person, in a stressful and upsetting situation. They are people, they have feelings, and they have Jobs to do, sometimes they may not like what they have to do, but they do it without question.
Most of the good stuff they do you will never hear about, they don't do it for glory or recognition, they do it because they are good people. And I wrote this post to point out one such act, My Daughter is a waitress at a local diner, she is also 7 months pregnant and working still to save as much money as she can, this will be her first child and she is so excited, she is always cheerful at work, so she has alot of regulars, but this was not one of them, Yesterday she was working the lunch shift when a Voorhees Twp police officer came in, he was pleasant, and had his lunch by himself, and asked for the check. My daughter gave him his check, and moved on to wait other tables, the officer went to the cashier and paid his bill, and left a note on the bill for my Daughter, this officer, who I am sure works his butt off for his paycheck left her a $100 tip on a $9.00 ticket and the note simply said “Enjoy your first, You will never forget it.”
What a wonderful person to not only leave a VERY generous tip, but a lovely message, I don't know you Mr Police Officer, but you made my little girl cry, and made her year. Thank you, I always had the utmost respect for Officers, but you went above and beyond not just an officer, but a beautiful human being. God Bless.
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