Anonymous donor pays $4,000 forward for Dunkin' Donuts customers

Over the course of the pandemic, we have seen individuals step up to the plate and act on their privilege. One of the most popular ways folks decided to do this was by "paying it forward" at drive-thrus and restaurants. A Dunkin' Donuts branch was the most recent to witness this act of kindness. On Friday, March 12, an anonymous donor visited the Dunkin' drive-thru in Beavercreek, Ohio. They asked to purchase a gift card with $1,000 on it so as to pay for the rest of the day's orders on behalf of future customers, Good Morning America reports.

When the location's general manager Samantha Owens heard the strange but amazing request, she asked the donor to come inside. Owens, a native of Ohio who has worked at the branch for two and a half years, explained that the shop's gift cards could not exceed a $100 balance. At this point, the donor decided to increase their donation to $4,000 rather than just $1,000. Therefore, they needed quite a few gift cards in order to fulfill their request. In total, the branch had to use a whopping 40 gift cards, each topped up with $100.

"We were waiting, and they were like, 'You know what, let's just make it $4,000. It's been a really rough year for everybody,'" Owens explained in an interview with Good Morning America. "They wanted to pay it forward in any way they could." 20 of the gift cards were used for orders placed at the drive-thru. The remaining 20 gift cards were used to pay for orders placed in-store. All 40 gift cards lasted from Friday night until the following morning, something which the Beavercreek branch had never witnessed before. The general manager stated, "A lot of people were ecstatic and surprised. They were like, 'Are you sure?' And then we had the issue where they were trying to pay for the car behind them, and we were like, 'Theirs is taken care of too.'"

According to Owen, the atmosphere at her Dunkin' Donuts branch is typically pleasant and friendly. In fact, dozens of customers have "paid it forward" on several occasions. However, this was the first time something of this scale had taken place at her location. In fact, each employee walked away with $15 in tips, which is "way more than normal." Owens shared, "I was just so happy that he chose this location, honestly, for something great like this to happen, because we love our regulars and we love our customers. Being able to make them happy really makes a difference in our mood at the store."