Cop’s $100 tip for pregnant waitress leaves her in tears
By Yaron Steinbuch, February 18, 2019 | 5:06pm | Updated, https://nypost.com/2019/02/18/...leaves-her-in-tears/
Courtney English and the generous tip a cop left her at a diner. Brian CadiganA South Jersey cop opened his heart — and his wallet — to a pregnant waitress whom he heard telling other diners about the upcoming birth of her first child — leaving her a $100 tip on his $8.75 check.
Courtney English, 23, who is almost eight months pregnant, was serving the lunch crowd at the Lamp Post Diner in Clementon, NJ, on Friday when the Voorhees Township officer sat sat down for a salad and a glass of water.
The officer — apparently a new dad himself — left her a note reading, “Enjoy your first. You will never forget it.”
“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 told The Post on Monday.
“One of the cashiers told me he left me $100 and I started crying,” said English, who has worked at the diner on and off for two years and is due April 1. “He had already left at that point.”
English’s dad, Brian Cadigan, was so touched by the officer’s act of generosity that he took to Facebook to post a photo of the receipt and deliver a message of thanks.
“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,” he wrote about the member of Voorhees’ Finest, who has insisted on remaining anonymous.
Courtney English and her father, Brian Cadigan Brian Cadigan
“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.”
Cadigan described the “amazing gesture” to The Post.
“It made her whole year. 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.
He added: “She texted me and said, ‘I just got a $100 tip from this nice officer who left me a note for the baby.’”
Cadigan said his unmarried daughter, who lives with him in Sewell, “works her butt off” to make ends meet — even though her former boyfriend, the baby’s father, remains “completely supportive.”
English, who earned her GED from Rowan College in 2015, plans to take off about six to eight weeks after her daughter — whom she plans to name Kayleigh — is born.
She said she eventually hopes to pursue a career in nursing.
Meanwhile, diner owner Nick Hionas said the story proves that there is “faith left in humanity.”
“It’s absolutely amazing,” he told The Post on Monday. “The officer just had a baby and he said it was the most glorious day of his life and how he’ll never forget it.”
Hionas, 39, described English as a “happy-go-lucky, sweet girl who goes above and beyond.”
“Good things come to those who have that type of disposition,” he added about the mom-to-be.
