US barmaid given winning lottery ticket as tip

Bar staff around the world are used to picking up tips and, in some cases, they may find a particularly generous customer has left them enough to buy something nice.

On occasions, it is even possible for a friendly punter to have put down a tip that is worth more than a member of staff earns in an evening. But no worker could have been prepared for the actions of one man in the US recently.

Aurora Kephart, 25, was working at Conway's Restaurant and Lounge in Oregon when she was approached by one of the establishment's regulars. He offered her the choice of two lottery tickets in exchange for a tip.

The ticket Ms Kephart chose turned out to be worth $17,500 (£11,000) – a sum she immediately refused to accept. She suggested the winnings belonged to the man so he should be the one to claim them.

But the man, whose name has not been made public, insisted that she kept the ticket – and he even made her sign the ticket so that it was only possible for her to claim the prize.

Ms Kephart later handed over some of the winnings to the individual, stating: "I just couldn't not give him some of it."

Following the remarkable windfall, the bartender is planning to splash out on a brand new sofa for her home. But before made that decision, she had to get through the rest of the evening after being told of her huge win.

She admitted that once she knew she had landed such a large sum, she could not keep her mind on her job. Indeed, she described her brain as being in a "scramble" for the few hours following the lucky break.