Cleveland waitress Ginny Hopkins has been anxiously checking her mail for her $754 tax refund from the Internal Revenue Service, ABC News reported. She needs the money to fix her car, among other things.
However, the refund check that arrived from the IRS on Tuesday was unexpectedly large -- $434,712, WKYC-TV in Cleveland reported.
More from GlobalPost: IRS: Unclaimed tax refunds from 2008 total $1 billion
Hopkins polled customers at Johnny's Downtown Restaurant, where she’s worked for 19 years, about what to do with the check, according to WKYC. "Some say cash it, and some say don't," she told the station.
In the end, she returned the check to the IRS office in Cleveland by hand on Wednesday, WKYC reported.
IRS employees greeted her with suspicion, she told ABC News. "Would you believe I had to give them a photo ID to prove it was me before I could give it back?" she said. "Otherwise they wouldn't even talk to me."
Now, Ginny said, she was “readjusting” after the excitement. "It's not easy being poor after you've been rich," she joked to ABC News.
Her friends have lent her money for her car while she continues to wait for the correct refund to arrive, WKYC reported.
More from GlobalPost: IRS amnesty for offshore tax evaders is back
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/weird-wide-web/cleveland-waitress-receives-half-million-refund-irs-ginny-hopkins
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