Powerball winner? Mystery woman picks up tab for 180 diners.
| Plant City, Fla.
A mystery woman who many said resembled the Florida woman who recently won the $590 million Powerball jackpot picked up the tab for 180 diners at a Plant City restaurant on Sunday afternoon.
Stephanie Reaves, manager of BuddyFreddy's restaurant, said a woman bearing a striking resemblance to Gloria C. MacKenzie — the 84-year-old Zephyrhills woman who took a lump-sum payment of about $370.9 million on June 5 — paid about $2,600 to cover the cost of meal. She even left $50 tips for each of the five servers on duty.
"Everybody got up and applauded and started hugging her," said Reaves told the Tampa Bay Times (http://bit.ly/11yyp7o ). "In my 35 years in the restaurant industry, I've never seen anything like it."
Reaves said the woman was accompanied by another woman and a man. When asked, the donor said she was not the Powerball winner.
"It sure looked like her," Reaves added. "She looked like the woman on TV."
MacKenzie bought a ticket for May 18 Powerball drawing at a Publix supermarket in Zephyrhills, which is north of Plant City. It was the largest undivided jackpot in U.S. history. She took her prize in a lump-sum payment of just over $370 million. After federal taxes, she received about $278 million.
The retiree from Maine, who has four children, did not speak to the media when she claimed the prize in Tallahassee.
