Ever misplace a check for half-a-million?

That's what happened earlier this month at a New York City pizza parlor named Patsy's. Karen Vinacour was there with her adult daughter enjoying pizza, and they noticed the walls were covered with pictures of famous customers. Vinacour asked her waiter, Armando Markaj, why most of the pictures were of men. He joked that maybe women don't like pizza as much. This must have annoyed Vinacour, because she didn't leave Markaj a tip -- not even a penny. But she accidentally left something else behind. A cashier's check for $424,000.

                                                                 Photo by Barry Williams for the New York Daily News
Vinacour was out looking for apartments in the area, and the cashier's check was to be her down-payment. (Yes, apartments are super expensive in the Big Apple.) Her bank told her she'd have to wait three months to even try to cancel it, and Markaj could easily have deposited it in his account. But he gave it to his boss instead, and it was returned to Vinacour. This time she offered the waiter a VERY nice tip, but he declined. She apologized for stiffing him, and in the end she got what she wanted. They took a photo together, so now a picture of her will be on the restaurant wall.