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SINCE SEPTEMBER, AN anonymous customer has been leaving mysterious tips of huge proportions in restaurants and bars across America.

Employees at eateries from Michigan to Los Angeles were lucky enough to be at the receiving end of some amazingly large tips, all over $1,000.

The tipper is claiming credit for the gifts by posting photos of receipts on the Instagram page @tipsforjesus, though as of now it is still unclear whether it is one person or a group behind the scheme.

Here’s a shot of a receipt from the Legends of Notre Dame, a restaurant on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. The mysterious tipper paid a visit before the football team took on one of their main rivals in a game, which could explain the “Fight On!” message left on the receipt. The photo shows an unbelievable $5,000 was tacked on to the total.

According to Indiana newspaper The South Bend Tribune, the mystery tipper returned to the restaurant again after the game, racking up a $164.50 bill and leaving another $5,000 tip.

“We were all looking at this like, is this a joke?” Ashley Rust, a former bartender at Legends, said to the South Bend Tribune. “We were all super shocked and we didn’t want to get too excited because we hadn’t ever seen a tip like this.”

Rust said that the bill was paid by three men, one of whom was wearing a University of Southern California jersey, though all three said they were from California.

Several other tips were left in the alleged tippers’ home state of California.

The mystery of the anonymous tipper first began back in August, when employees in an Ogden, Utah bar said they received a $1,000 tip from a young man using a black American Express “Centurion” card. The black card is very exclusive, available by invitation only to those who fit strict qualifications.

The person or people behind the @tipsforjesus account are now claiming responsibility for extravagant tips left in two different Ogden establishments, though those receipts were not labeled “tips for Jesus” as the others were.

- Madeline Stone

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