LAKELAND, Fla. — A cashier at a Lakeland McDonald's witnessed the graciousness of humanity firsthand last week.
Marisabel Figueroa was working the drive-thru when Torie Keene said she wanted to pay for the meal in the car behind her in addition to her own food.
Keene specifically asked the cashier to say "Merry Christmas" and not "happy holidays."
The passenger in the car behind Keene was so moved by the act of kindness that she decided to do the same for the car behind her in what eventually became a chain of cars paying it forward.
"After the 15th car I started tally marking the number of people that were participating on a piece of paper," Figueroa told ABC News. In total, 250 people participated in the chain, which lasted almost the entire duration of the cashier's 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift.
Everyone who received the message was thrilled about what was taking place and "one lady even paid for the next three cars behind her," the cashier said.
Figueroa had "never experienced something like that before" in her 12 years of working at the Lakeland restaurant and said, "I feel very blessed to have been a part of all that."
Once a local news station reported on what happened, Keene reached out to the cashier on Facebook, saying she was the "mystery customer" who inadvertently started it all. She told the cashier she was "only trying to brighten someone's day."
WFTV
