A small-town restaurant that survived COVID-19 is fighting to stay open after being hit with something that has been even more devastating – a case of fraud.

“I'm angry because I've always wondered how people can let people take advantage of them and then I fell for that,” said Diane Korner.

Korner is the owner of Korner Kountry Kitchen in Brookville, Indiana. She said a case of fraud cost them more than $100,000.

“I’m hurt that somebody would do this to us and make us struggle,” Korner said.

The restaurant was having trouble making payroll for the 25 employees and was a matter of hours from closing when things took an unusual turn.

The community came together to raise about $10,000. It’s not enough to bail the restaurant out, but it has kept its doors open.

“It's amazing,” said Kountry Kitchen general manager Amanda Merritt. “We've had phone calls, messages, there was a GoFundMe. They've helped with their donating.”

The money came from individuals around town who don’t want the restaurant to close.

“We come two to three times a week,” said James Wagner, who drives about 10 miles to get to the restaurant.

Wagner said it’s not just the food, but the small-town flavor of the business that keeps him coming back. Before his wife died, he would bring her to the restaurant. He said one day he was cutting up a salad to make the pieces smaller for his wife.

“So, Diane came over and said, ‘What are you doing?’” Wagner said he explained the situation. “From then on, she told the girls, anytime my wife ordered a salad, you make sure you got to cut it up real fine. She took care of my wife.”

Those kinds of details are not overlooked in a small town.

Korner said she is unable to talk about the details of the fraud case, but that local, state and federal authorities are looking into the crime.

A customer at The Omaha Bakery in Nebraska ordered two turnovers, and in return put forth a huge tip.

"Everybody was freaking out in here, they were like 'you guys won't believe what just happened!'" employee Preston Rath said.

Rath thought he was doing a typical transaction at the bakery.

"He ordered two turnovers which came to $5 and as I'm ringing them up he kind of snickers a little bit as he turns the screen back to me," Rath said.

When the customer, Nicholas, turned the screen around, Rath noticed his $2,000 tip.

"And I was like that's wrong, you put too much of a tip in there. And he goes 'if you don't hit OK, I'm going to reach around and hit OK,'" Rath said.

"You hear about these things in big cities and you see it on the internet, but you never think it's going to happen at your business," owner Michelle Kaiser said.

Kaiser said the money will be dispersed between hourly employees only, no managers.

"He knew that it had been a rough time with COVID, he knew that people were struggling in general. He noticed our staff was working really, really hard," Kaiser said.

Rath hopes the kindness that Nicholas showed doesn't stop with him.

"You don't have to give random strangers $2,000 but even just saying 'have a good day' can help somebody go from a zero to a 10," he said.

Watch the full story in the video above.

Interest rates continue to remain low and that's putting the potential for families to save tens of thousands of dollars by refinancing to a 15-year mortgage.

“You know, if you're building equity faster with a 15-year mortgage, that's just kind of sign, hey you want to stay in that home and own it free and clear as soon as possible,” said Holden Lewis, a mortgage expert at NerdWallet.

Lewis says he doesn't see interest rates rising anytime soon. The Federal Reserve wants to keep people borrowing to stimulate the economy.

The savings can be enormous, because not only are you paying down the home faster, but you get the loan at an even lower interest rate.

Take a $200,000 home. At 3% for 30 years, you pay more than $100,000 in interest. The same home at 2.5% for 15 years will save you about $63,000 in interest.

The trade-off is the higher payment, about $500 more a month. But it could be less if you're currently paying mortgage insurance and you can drop that in a refinance.

“And that $500 a month could go toward retirement savings, savings for a rainy day, you know, your child's day care. So, there's a lot of competing things that you have to balance against each other,” said Lewis.

If higher payments seem too risky, you could always pay extra on your current mortgage, but that takes discipline.

With the housing market so hot right now, Lewis sees that as a positive for people who may have had financial hardships and need to sell.

“When people have forbearance for a long time, it gives them time to fix up their homes and list them and sell them, so they don't have to do it in an emergency. They don't have to do it in a fire sale type situation and that will keep house prices from falling,” said Lewis.

Homes are sitting on the market only about 21 days, selling about two weeks earlier than they were a year ago.