A restaurant in Texas caught a little girl stealing a waitress's tip. (Our Place Restaurant)
A Texas restaurant has taken to social media to call out customers who reportedly took a cash tip left by a previous patron.
Our Place Restaurant in Mansfield, Texas, has used Facebook in the past to shame customers who walk out on their bill or steal tips from waitresses into giving back the stolen funds. And it seems to work, for the most part.
“That’s the only tool we have to catch those people. So we’re going to use it. It’s not okay, but we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt to make it right,” he said to FOX4. “Our rule is if you come pay for it today or the next day, we’ll take the video off.”
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The money was returned once the mother realized her daughter took it. (Our Place Restaurant)
And just because you order off the kid’s menu does not exempt you from the strict rule as evidenced by Our Place Restaurant’s most recent public shaming.
In surveillance video, a girl is seen finding a $5 cash tip that was left on the table by previous customers. The girl shows the bill to her mother before hiding it under the kid’s menu, FOX4 reported.
Owner Benji Arslanovski saw the surveillance footage and posted it on Facebook:
“Do you mind bringing back the server’s tip? She would appreciate it. We know how people can accidentally mistake tips as their own.”
The post prompted a strong response, but he defended his tactic as being the only way to hold people accountable.
Arslanovski says the tip was meant for his waitress, and that money is part of her livelihood, FOX4 reported. He said he gave the waitress the $5 from his pocket after the incident happened.
The mother called it a misunderstanding. (Our Place Restaurant)
“She’s pregnant. She has two children,” he said to FOX4. “She really needs that money. She’s going to be off for a while.”
Arslanovski said he is not trying to humiliate people -- he is just trying to give them a chance to make it right, he told FOX4.
“If they make it right, we’re fine with that,” he said, noting the restaurant’s policy that it takes down the surveillance footage once the money is returned.
The tactic, he said, works five out of eight times.
This time was one of those five. FOX4 reported the money was returned after the Facebook video was put up.
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The mother of the girl who took the cash said she did not realize her daughter had taken the bill and called it a misunderstanding, FOX4 reported.
Arslanovski took down the video after the money was returned.
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