Businessman gives struggling waitress $11,000 tip

A Chicago cocktail waitress has been given a tip of nearly £8,000 by a businessman who pulled out his wallet and asked her to "pick a credit card".

Colleen Gallagher, who has two children, says John Boc told her he was a millionaire and that the money didn't matter.

Ms Gallagher, 26, had told him earlier how she was struggling to make ends meet when he asked how life had been treating her.

She sid: "It was very genuine. It was really a great feeling.

"I just kept saying, 'Why? You don't even know me.' He just said, 'Life's too short to be feeling blue.'"

She says he wasn't drunk and he didn't proposition her. Ms Gallagher plans to put the $11,000 towards a new flat.

"I was really falling down in my life and he just picked me up. He was heaven-sent," she added.

Mr Boc is co-founder of Meridian Investments in Massachusetts. He didn't want to comment on the tip, but colleagues say he has a "heart of gold."