Working in customer-facing jobs like restaurants where tipping is common, servers have learned to keep an eye on their tips.
Whether it is an errant child who pockets tip money left on a table for a kind server, withheld illegally by a manager, or discovering that their tips are short when they count them at home, it is not unheard of for tipped workers to find that their tips have been taken by a third party.
Sometimes, it can even be an adult customer who sees it fit to take the money gifted to a server by another member of their dinner party.
A Texas Roadhouse waitress says she believes an adult male customer took the $20 tip left for her by someone he was dining with when she went to the bathroom. In a video shared to TikTok by the server, Sarah Garcia (@sarahagarciaa), she says she initially suspected her bussers, but reviewed security footage just to make sure.
“If you came to Texas Roadhouse today on April 7, 2024, sat in my section, my name is Sarah,” she says in the 47-second video. “You sat at a six-top table but you’re a party of four, you had two kids with you. You had a combo appetizer with snakebites, potato skins, and mild wings. You left me a $20 on the table but you paid on EasyOs. Your husband took my money.”
She says she accused her co-workers who bussed the table of taking the tip, before reviewing the footage, leaving her chagrined and embarrassed.
“I had them play back the cameras because I thought my bussers stole my money,” she says. “I knew it was there, I seen it. He took the $20 off the table when you guys went to the restroom. So I did not get that $20. I blamed my bussers and I felt like a B*yotch. So yeah, your husband took my $20.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Garcia via TikTok direct message regarding the video.
Tips legally belong to employees who earn them directly from customers for their work in restaurants. When an employer withholds or keeps tips, it is considered theft. It is unclear from the video whether the poster will seek out the customer who is alleged to have stolen her tip, but it follows logically that a customer taking tips would fall into a similar category as an employer taking tips and have similar consequences.
It is not the first time someone has taken to TikTok to share their frustration with their customers feeling entitled to their tips. Previously, a content creator shared that their customers frequently treat their own tip jars like a take-a-penny, leave-a-penny system, taking money out of the tip jar to serve their own purposes.
Some viewers of Garcia’s video shared that they often considered or followed through on handing their tip directly to their server to ensure they received it.
“And that’s why we always hand our tips to our waiters,” one commenter wrote.
“Sometimes I want to hand the tip to the waitress but don’t know if they are allowed to take it or it has to be on the table or the clip thing,” another said.
“I ALWAYS tip cash and I ALWAYS hand it to the person who waited on us,” a further user claimed.
@sarahagarciaa TEXAS ROADHOUSE FRESNO‼️‼️never have I experienced getting tipped then stole from at the same table!! 😭😭 #fyp #texasroadhouse #fresno #serverstorytime ♬ original sound – Sarah Garcia 💋
Not every viewer found fault with the customer who Garcia claims took her tip, however.
“I mean, is his money too, if they’re married,” one commenter wrote.
“And you blamed the wrong person so you dont deserve it,” another commented.
“Your mad at the wrong ppl maybe the employers should be paying more or find another job tipping is not mandatory enough of the no tipping you can’t eat out no maybe get a diff job,” a third wrote.
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