Kid Who Steals Tip

[BlakeMP]

Geez -- if I ever caught a kid of mine pulling that...

[TennesseePieman]

As the pizza delivery man, I see kids attempt tip theft right before my frikken eyes.

Often, parents will let young Johnny handle the transaction as a sort of learning experience. Usually you can tell that's the situation because they seem a little unsure of how the transaction is supposed to happen. But it doesn't stop their little thieving hearts, though.

I went to this one apartment, and the boy, about 9 or 10 years old, answers the door. I see he's already got a check and two dollars in his hand, albeit a little awkwardly. He doesn't seem too sure of himself, so I go ahead and start guiding him through the transaction.

Me: Hi, how are you tonight? Your total is $13.06.

Him: **Glances at check, made out for $13.06, and then at the $2 tip intended for me. I suddenly realize he doesn't know that the little wheels in his brain that the hamsters run on make tiny squeaking sounds when he's up against a moral dilemma. He pauses, takes one of the dollar bills, and puts it in his pocket, then hands me the check and the other dollar and says,** Here you go, sir.

Me: **Thinking, oh hell no, I wouldn't let my own child slide on this one, no way am I letting you slide, so I say with my voice raised just a little for the benefit of the parents who I'm pretty sure are just around the corner,** Great! And what about that other dollar there - I think your folks intended that for me, too.

Him: **Knowing he's busted, and trying to limp out of this situation** Oh, yeah, I ... um, forgot. **He retrieves the other dollar and hands it to me.**

Me: **Being friendly like nothing happened, but I give him that eye contact that lets him know that I know** All right, well, here's your pizza, y'all have a good night.

Lesson here for this young man was this: Tips are how I make my living, and I'll be damned if I'm the least bit worried about embarrassing a ten-year-old junior scam artist with his parents when he steals what amounts to part of my paycheck from me. Next time, little man, I won't even give you the chance to save face, I'll just knock on the door and have a little parent-to-parent talk with them.

[iradney]

Golly, here in SA we NEVER leave the money on the table. Besides, it's so much nicer to hand it to your server and see their eyes light up at the big tip you left them (if the service was good, which it generally is)

[Brighid45]

I give the tip directly to the server. In this town, supposedly one of the wealthiest places in SE Pennsy, the offspring of all those doctors and lawyers don't even think twice about swiping money off tables, or out of charity boxes. Neither do some of their parents.

[CRXPanda]

Reminds me of the time at Huddle House where I yelled out loud "Hey that kid just took money off that table"

Now that I have everyone's attention...

the dad looked at the kid
kid's face turns red
dad goes into kid's pockets
pulls out money
puts money on table
flips kid around with one arm
**smack** on the buttocks!

followed with applause from the patrons

[kibbles]

Reminds me of the time at Huddle House where I yelled out loud "Hey that kid just took money off that table"

Now that I have everyone's attention...

the dad looked at the kid
kid's face turns red
dad goes into kid's pockets
pulls out money
puts money on table
flips kid around with one arm
**smack** on the buttocks!

followed with applause from the patrons

The possibly ironic thing here is that this could have been a case where the parents instructed their kids to steal the tips, a situation talked about in previous posts.

Has anyone here ever actually seen a situation where the parents did this, and how did you deal with it? It's easy to deal with if you know the kid is doing it on their own, rightfully embarrass the heck out of them!!! But how have you dealt with situations where you knew for sure, the stealing was on the parent's request?

Kibbles, looking for some juicy stories

[ArenaBoy]

I hate bringing back old threads but I encountered this situation about a good 2 weeks ago. A friend and I went out to lunch at a pizza place and behind us was two moms with thier 9 year old kid. While the moms were talking to each other, the kid tried to steal the tip and was .9% close to getting some cash when the parents thankfully caught him. When my friend and I paid, we hid our tip under the cash tray that some places use because the kid and the family were still there.

[blas]

As a former hostess and server, I've caught little shits scamming tips all the time. I bet about half the time, the parents put them up to it, because maybe little Johnny doesn't know any better.

I once dated a pizza boy from Dominos. He had the coolest manager who'd let his friends come with him on deliveries.

It was like clockwork....every place he went to....

We stopped at the trailer park. "50 cent to no tip." BINGO!
House with little kid answering the door. "He's got the tip somewhere in his clothes but he won't hand it over!" BA DA BING! Kid was shirtless with big pants and gave my then bf a check for exact amount.
Another house with kid answering door. "These people are so-so, when they want to be cheap and not tip, the kid answers the door so they can hide their embarrassment." BINGO!

Some people find their children to be of extremely good use to hide their embarrassment of being cheap frauds themselves.

[Auto]

The waitress would get stuck with the bill.

Noooo!

She might get fired but making her pay for walk-offs is against the law. No manager at a chain restaurant would be so stupid because if she complained and the state investigated, corporate would act shocked and fire his ass.