Aurora Kephart frequently receives Keno tickets from the Oregon Lottery as a tip for bar-tending at Conway's Restaurant and Lounge in Springfield. Sunday, the tip turned into $17,500.
Her regular customer has a system with the bartender, she explained to ABC News. "He lets me take whatever tickets I would want," she said. "That's a normal thing between us."
This time, she got to choose two tickets. The first was worth $5, and the second was the big payout.
When the bartender realized the ticket was worth so much, she offered it back to her loyal customer. "The look on his face was incredible," Kephart, 25, told The Register-Guard. "I automatically handed it back to him; it was his ticket."
However, the man wouldn't accept it – he made Kephart sign the ticket and keep the winnings. She did give him a chunk of the money, though.
Kephart plans to put the money into savings after buying a new couch. "I never realized how expensive couches were," she said. "Instead of waiting till Christmas or later, now I can buy something I really need." She went on to say that she won't be buying much else, as she wants to save the money she won. "I have not bought anything, not shoes, not a T-shirt," she said. "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."
Kephart did, however, spend some of the winnings on charity. She made a donation to firefighters benefiting muscular dystrophy and then put the rest of the money in her savings.
Conway's restaurant and lounge is frequented by regular customers, and all of them were excited for Kephart's fortune. “Everyone is so excited," she said. "Everybody keeps saying good things happen to good people. I'm so glad so many people think that I'm deserving of that."