YOU CAN KEITH THE CHANGE!
Urban’s NJ coffee mate
A retired New Jersey teacher thought she was helping a downand-out guy pay for a cup of coffee — and the “broke” man turned out to be country superstar Keith Urban.
Ruth Reed, 66, of Medford, said she offered to pay for the cup of joe for the man standing in front of her at her local Wawa on Friday night after she noticed he was having trouble getting his credit card to work.
Reed said her random act of kindness was in keeping with a resolution she made three years ago to treat strangers at Wawa or Dunkin’ Donuts at least once a week.
“It looked like he was using a card, and it didn’t go through, and then he asked a young lady [with him] for $5, and I thought, ‘ This is it.’ So I said, ‘ No, I’ll get it,’ ” Reed told CBS 3 Philly.
As she paid for the drink, the man thanked her and then introduced himself as Keith, the former fourth-grade teacher said.
Reed recalled telling him, “Do people ever tell you that you look like Keith Urban?”
The four-time Grammy winner responded, “I am Keith Urban.’’
But Reed admits she thought he was pulling her leg.
“No, you’re not. Really?” she said she told him.
Reed was still so dubious that she continued to question the 50- year-old singer, asking him where his wife, Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman, was and wanting to know about the woman who was with him in the store.
“He said, ‘That’s my sister, we can ask her,’ ” Reed said.
She then asked a man who also was with Urban — his bodyguard — to confirm he was the singer. The bodyguard replied that yes, he was.
“It was then I realized what an idiot I was,” Reed said.
She still purchased Urban’s coffee — with the singer then paying it forward by sticking five bucks in the donation box at the Wawa register and snapping a picture with her.
“He really could have said, ‘Lady, get away from me,’ and he didn’t, he was very kind,” Reed said.
Urban had been in the Garden State as part of his Graffiti U World Tour and performed at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden later that night.
Reed originally shared her story in a private Facebook post that was then tweeted out by a former student of hers — and it became an instant hit.
“[Ruth is] a very kind soul who regularly treats folks to coffee at Wawa,” Carolan Grimes Kviklys commented on the post.
Added Miriam Wilt Coll, “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person!”