Is a Horse a Horse? Not When It's a Tip
A restaurant patron gave waitress A.D. Carrol a horse as a gratuity.
Feb. 27, 2008 — -- In the 35 to 40 years that widowed A.D. Carrol has been a waitress, she's received some tremendous tips — but none of them compared to one she recently received.
After waiting on a businessman in Houston's Ousie's Table Restaurant on Feb. 13, the 71-year-old received a thoroughbred race horse named Mailman Express as her bonus.
"The gentleman asked me if I want a horse. I said, 'Of course I want a horse.' And I thought of course he was kidding me," Carrol said on "Good Morning America" today. "Three days later he came in with the address, the phone number of the trainer and where the horse was and told me he was mine."
The man, whose identity is being withheld, was a familiar face to Carrol.
"I've seen him in here many times. He's a VIP customer. He knew I loved animals," she said.
The day the man was at the eatery, he was having a business meeting. As she brought him a fresh cup of coffee, that's when the horse talk began, and Carrol never doubted for a second the man was serious — even if her family and co-workers didn't have as much faith.
"I was telling everybody that he was going to do it. I tried to believe in it and two days later, here I am," she said.
Now Carrol plans to retrain Mailman Express, which no longer races, to jump.
"I'm going to have him jumping and running. Rather than racing. It's a whole new process," said Carrol, who already has 16 cats and three dogs.
Carrol said she is pleased to have the horse, which has won $16,000 in racing purses. She also has access to two other horses, owned by a daughter-in-law.
She said she knows why the man decided to give her such a gift.
"I guess because he's a good person. That would be my thinking of it — very giving in an animal lover. You want a good home for your animals," Carrol said.
Carrol has a history of large tips. Aside from the horse, she has received a $500 and $600 tip in the past. But her life hasn't been a charmed one.
When she lived in California in 1963, she was in a car accident that killed her 6-year-old son. Her husband died of a heart attack in 1983, and a second husband was murdered.
