Kid Who Steals Tip

[Great Unknown]

At a nice, sit-down mom-and-pop burger joint, I'm munching on some fries. Across the room, I see three people at another booth getting up to leave and pay. The parents head up to the cash register, closely followed by the kid. While mom and dad are paying, the kid goes back to the row of tables he was sitting at and grabs the tip off someone else's table! I got up to warn the waitress/cashier but she was already heading back to the kitchen area. By that time the goob
er had run outside. I'm genuinely worried about kids these days.

[Misanthropical]

Things like that are why my husband and I insist on handing our tip directly to our waiter or waitress before leaving. We never leave it just sitting on the table anymore.

[thegiraffe]

How old was the kid?

[Great Unknown]

Old enough that it should know better, he looked at least ten. Can't tell anymore from how large kids are getting these days.

[thegiraffe]

Ah gotcha. Yeah, that's bad. I mean if the kid was like 4, that'd be different. Mom and Dad just may be in on it too....never can tell.

[Sofar]

People keep trying to pinch currency from our tip jar, they do it with alarming frequency, our customers are very nice but kleptomanic apparently. Fortunately, we use an old milk jug for a tip jar, and every time I slide my hand in there to try and find more pennies, my hand gets stuck. It's just the right size and shape, this happens to anyone whom tries to slide their hand in there. Hilarity ensues:

I clear my throat.
"I was just making change."
"Okay." I open the register. "What do you need?"
"Um . . . four quarters?"
"Okay."
". . . ,"
"And where's the dollar for which you want change?"
The other customers are usually staring at this point. "Um . . . ,"

I usually don't do anything about it beyond saying, "Please don't stick your hand in the tip jar," and I can't remember faces that well so I can't ban anyone. If one of the cooks catches them, though, they get cursed at in Spanish by a small wiry man waving a carving knife, and if Boss-man catches them, outright bannings and refusal of service ensue, plus he uses that, "Dude, that is not cool," voice of his, which strikes at your very soul. It's the most fun when someone is caught by another customer, then the offender usually gets a slap in the face, especially if the witness is one of our elderly female customers. I could go on, a man once grabbed the jar and ran for the door, and in between the time at which he entered and then he forgot that yes, to open our door you actually have to turn the knob. Pushing on it doesn't work. Bam! The little bell even jingled.

EDIT: I'd like to point out that all these occurences occured in the last five weeks since I was hired.

[powerboy]

I just do not understand why some people steal. If you don't have enough money, for something, then wait til you do. Plus if you wait, it might even go on sale or clearance, and then you actully have money left over.

[Raerlynn]

Actually this just happened at the Applebee's I went to today.

Kid picked up maybe $8-13 in tip. (At least 1 fiver in there) and tried walking to the door. I caught on and the following scene ensued:

Me: "HEY BUDDY, HOW YA BEEN!!" *puts arm around shoulders*
Teen: "uhhh..."
Me: *whisper* "Maybe you should put that back. As in, before decide to fuse your spine with one of these chairs for robbing these people."
Me: "IT'S BEEN SO LONG!"
Teen: *Tries to gut check me and run*

I caught him before he got in his Mom's car. Cops were called, much mockery (from me) and screaming (from Mom) ensued.

[Melxb]

I once caught a kid, about 6 or 7, stealing a tip from Red Robin. And I'm happy to say that I actually said something....
He and his parents were walking past my friend and I having dinner when he just reached out and stole the bills from the table next to us.
Without any thinking I just ran after him and caught his wrist as he was walking out.
"Hey! I think you accidentally picked this up from a table you walked by!" Now, I said this very cheerfully! And with a HUGE smile on my face, like this:
Before he or his parents even said a word, I took the money from his hands and walked back to my table, dropping the tip on the table on the way back.
I was all of 19, so this was over 10 years ago.
What did his parents do? Give me a dirty look for catching their child.
How do I know I caught their child?
The waitress of that table, who was our waitress too? She came to me with this look on her face: She told me that couple with their kid comes in about once or twice a month and the kid ALWAYS ALWAYS manages to "innocently" swipe tips at tables on his way out. Management couldn't really do anything because whenever the kid was caught directly his parents always swore it was just an "accident." Corporate didn't want the hassle of banning them, but everone kinda knew the parents were behind it. Way to teach your kid to be a thief.

[Becks]

Corporate didn't want the hassle of banning them

Don't you just love how corporate takes care of employees?

I wonder what would happen if the kid was stealing money that was left to pay the bill and tip...

[IT Grunt]

Ugh... frankly, this is something I've always been afraid of when I'm eating out, and is one of the primary reasons I add the tip to my credit/debit card slip. Since it comes out of the till, I have reasonable assurance that the server is going to get their tip, and it won't be swiped by someone before they come back to clean the table off and collect it. It's a sad, sad world when you have to actually consider these things.

[Tria]

Don't you just love how corporate takes care of employees?

I wonder what would happen if the kid was stealing money that was left to pay the bill and tip...

The waitress would get stuck with the bill.

[Becks]

The waitress would get stuck with the bill.

I know that...I meant what the restaurant and/or parents would do.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I never leave til I've handed the money directly to the waiter/waitress.

[Captain Trips]

Just one more example of the f'd up attitude so prevalent these days: "It ain't illegal if I don't get caught." Hey, kiddo, theft is theft -- and even if it weren't illegal if you don't get caught, it's still wrong!