It wasn't Santa, but a group of seven men who made Christmas very special for Mary Lively this year. Lively, a waitress at Theo & Stacy's Restaurant in Kalamazoo, got the biggest tip of her life from the men who say they had one mission:  To make a waitress' day.

Mike 'Tonto Alexander and his friends spent about $70 on their breakfast Monday morning. Then, rather than leaving the change Mary brought them, they handed her an envelope with $1,000 in it. Lively was breathless. At first, she wasn't sure if the 10 $100 bills were real.

After Alexander and his group joked that they "just printed them off," they told Lively that yes, the bills they just handed her were in fact real.

Alexander tells WWMT that some of his friends had done similar things, and he wanted to make someone's day in Kalamazoo.

"I thought it was a great idea. So I told my friends, and they're super guys, and said 'Guys, we should do it in Kalamazoo.' They all said, 'I'm in, I'm in,'" said Alexander.

Lively has worked at the restaurant since '94 and plans to part of her windfall toward a car repair bill.

 

 

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