“Went to my favorite diner with the girlfriend last night. A group of six teenagers sat down at the booth next to us. Typical rowdy behavior you’d expect from a group of obnoxious teens, but forgivable.
A customer across the way drops a few bucks on the table as a tip and leaves.
One of the teens stands up, walks over to the empty table with her phone out, sits down pretending to text or whatever, and swipes the money off the table and shoves it into her shirt. Stands up, walks back to her friends (who are guffawing and whispering ‘Oh my god I can’t believe you did that!’) and sits down like nothing happened.
Now I’m not much for confrontation, and in most situations I’d mind my own business. But I kept thinking about how unfair and disrespectful doing something like that is, and how ticked off the waitress would be, assuming that the customer had left without tipping, when in reality some ill-mannered little girl stole what that waitress worked to earn. So I stood up.
Me: ‘Excuse me, I think you need to put the money that you just took back on that table.’
Girl: ‘…Uh, ok. I was gonna…’
Me: ‘You need to do it now.’
Girl: ‘Um I don’t really want to reach into my shirt with you right here…’
Me: ‘DO IT NOW.’
At this point the waitress had walked over and picked up the check from the empty table and walked away to the register. Girl gets up and puts the money back on the table under a glass and sits back down with her silent, stupefied friends. Busser clears the empty table and finds the tip, gives it to the waitress. Teens all leave after a few minutes, couldn’t tell how much they tipped but I hope it was good.
After they leave, the waitress comes up to our table and thanks me for saying something. She hadn’t noticed what happened until she saw me stand up and talk to the girl and point to the empty table. She says, ‘I didn’t have to do that,’ but she’s glad I did. I say, ‘Of course. No problem, I couldn’t just do nothing.’
Our check comes later with the charge for the milkshake we ordered taken off.
Remember punk kids: waiting tables is hard enough. Don’t be shitty and steal their hard-earned tips or a stranger might call you out.”
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