Alleged Tip Jar Bandit On The Loose In Los Angeles [Surveillance Video]
A woman, nicknamed the tip jar bandit, has been spotted allegedly helping herself to the tip jar at several Westside Los Angeles eateries.
Apparently she has dipped into the tip jar at the front counter of at least three restaurants in the neighborhood including Seoul Sausage, Komodo, and Slicetruck Pizza.
One of the Seoul Sausage workers spotted her making an unauthorized cash withdrawal of about $10, and the indignant customer “threw the money back, in disgust, and stormed out” when the staff threatened to call the cops, L.A. Weekly reported.
At the pizza parlor (see embedded footage below — warning that the security video is quite noisy), she allegedly scooped up approximately $40 from the tip jar when the employees weren’t looking and got away with it.
“As an employee here, we work for tips, so when people come in and steal from our tip jar, it’s really insulting to the work that we do,” one of the Slicetruck employees remarked.
The Slicetruck description on YouTube explains that “at 9:48 p.m. January 14th, 2015, this girl walked into our pizza shop and stole the tip jar. This is on Sawtelle Blvd in West Los Angeles. Anyone know who she is?”
Restaurants in the area have been warned to be on the lookout for the alleged tip jar thief and to better secure their tip jars, as well as keeping a close eye on anyone who might be hovering over the counter.
As a digression, you may recall that this is the complete opposite of the scenario that hapless George Costanza of Seinfeld found himself in. That is, he never could attract the attention of the counter guy when he put money in the tip jar each time he picked up calzones for the boss, “George Steinbrenner.” Costanza then got into big trouble by trying to retrieve his own money from the tip jar and put it back in when the guy was actually looking. See Seinfeld footage below.
A reward has even been offered for the ID of the Westside tip jar bandit/foodie, Los Angeles Eater explained.
“After taking off with $50 some dollars in multiple incidents at Komodo, owner Eric Tjahyadi is now offering a year of free tacos to anyone with information that could help stop the perpetrator.”
Tjahyadi added the following information.
“Apparently one of the line cooks had seen this person before, scoping the scene. She was on a pretend phone call. That was her M.O. She didn’t purchase anything. She was asking about the menu… Our employees, they live off those tips. This is their livelihood. It’s in such bad taste.”
As far as a description of the alleged tip jar bandit, “The young woman, said to be Persian, [is] in her mid-20s, of medium or average build, driving a white Infinity [sic]…” L.A. Weekly noted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svWjtDhGQFg
[image via YouTube]
