Waitress Receives a Lottery Ticket as a Tip, Wins $17,500

It's like something out of a movie. Literally. The movie is It Could Happen to You, starring Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda.

And it did happen for Aurora Kephart, a 25-year-old waitress and bartender at Conway's Restaurant and Lounge in Springfield, Ore., who regularly receives lottery tickets in lieu of tips from her regulars.

"He buys multiple tickets and he'll hold out the tickets and say, ‘Pick which one you want,'" she told ABC News about one customer in particular. "That's a normal thing between us."

Recently, he let her pick two unplayed Keno tickets. She did and won $5 on the first ticket that she scanned. Not too shabby! She then scanned the second one and realized she had won $17,500.

"I automatically handed him back the ticket and I was like, 'I'm sorry. I can't take it!'" Aurora recalls. "He had me sign it and said, 'You're the only one who can cash it now.'"

George Conway, the owner of the restaurant, says that, while many people may regret handing over a winning ticket, "It's not that way with this guy at all." Aurora also gave the man, who has chosen to remain anonymous, a cut of her winnings.

"I forced him to take it. I'm too humble for that," she explains. "I absolutely just want to pay it forward. I don't intend to keep all that money for myself."

As for the rest of the money, Aurora tells ABC, "I have not bought anything, not shoes, not a T-shirt...I have a couple of bills I'm going to pay off, but for the most part I'm just going to save it. I don't want to blow money just because I came into money." She also donated to a muscular dystrophy fundraiser.

She will splurge on one thing though: A new couch. "I never realized how expensive couches were," she told The Register-Guard. "Instead of waiting till Christmas or later, now I can buy something I really need."

Yahoo also points out that Aurora "isn't quitting her day job." And why would she? Not when there are more Keno tickets to cash in. You can win, like, $6.4 million off Keno. Do you even know how many couches that could buy?!