You’d have to deliver a lot of pizzas to make this kind of money.
An 89-year-old pizza delivery man in Utah has become famous on a social media platform he didn’t know existed, and ultimately earned a $12,000 tip.
When ordering from the Papa John's in Roy, members of the Valdez family always request that their pizza be delivered by Derlin Newey, KSL reports.
Apparently, Newey always delivers orders with the same line: “Hello, are you looking for pizza?”
The Valdezes have frequently shared videos of Newey’s deliveries to their popular TikTok page, where the pizza man has won a bit of a fan base. After several fans asked why he was still working at his age, Carlos Valdez reportedly decided to raise money for the man and gathered $12,069 through TikTok.
When the Valdezes surprised Newey with the massive tip, they mentioned that it came from the TikTok community, and explained to their favorite Papa John's employee what the video-sharing site was.
Upon receiving the generous gratuity, Newey teared up and repeatedly said he couldn't believe what was happening.
This is one of the latest examples of the Venmo Challenge, which involves people on social media asking their followers to donate money to a Venmo account. Once a large amount of money is collected, the account’s owner takes the cash to a service industry worker with an extremely large tip.
The challenge has seen a rise in popularity during recent months amid the coronavirus pandemic, with participants usually giving the tips to servers at restaurants. While some businesses were able to stay open through to-go and delivery options, servers have seen a large percentage (if not all) of their income, which often mostly comes from tips, disappear.