Tip-A-Cop held at Jacksonville diner

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - A local diner here in Eastern Carolina is getting some “official” help serving its customers.

The Kettle Diner in Jacksonville hosted the Jacksonville Police Department in its annual Tip-A-Cop to support the Special Olympics.

A Jacksonville Patrol Officer, Marta Krattiger, was serving up smiles and food this morning trying to raise money for this cause.

You could hear Marta asking customers, “How’s everything tasting? Good? It smells delicious.”

Sgt. Timothy Sawyer broke down what they were doing Wednesday in the diner.

“When a customer comes into the Kettle Diner, we will ask them how many people are in their group, we’ll help sit them down, get their drink order, we’ll pass it on to the servers, they’ll put in the orders, and we will help serve them,” Sawyer said.

Why is Officer Krattiger trading a day on patrol for a few hours as a waitress? It’s because the money raised goes to the North Carolina Special Olympics.

Patron Ron Mayer said, “I tipped the PD again, you know for the Special Olympics. I support a lot of people here in town.”

I asked Lily Cantrell, a waitress at the diner, what she thought of her helpers today.

Lily responded: ”A server is not an easy job.”

On a scale of 1 to 10 of what she thought, “I would say a 10! They’ve been Johnny-On-The-Spot!”

With only one last person to ask how he thought he performed, Sgt Timothy Sawyer said, “Today, for me, it’s a ten always.”

North Carolina’s Special Olympics program is one of the largest in the country with nearly 40,000 registered athletes who train and compete in year-round programs in 20 different sports.

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