Applebee’s Customer Tries To Pay Tab With $1 Trillion Bill

A South Carolina man reportedly tried to pay an Applebee’s restaurant tab with a one trillion dollar bill according police.

Ironically enough, he produced the bogus currency after he attempted to pay for his meal with a debit card that was declined. Upon receiving the $1 trillion bill, the Appleee’s wait staff perhaps experienced some heartburn and called the cops.

The diner, Michael Williams 53, was taken into custody on an unrelated pending charge of contempt of magistrate’s court. He received a sentence of probation and an order to pay $262 — presumably with real rather than fake money — in court fees. Sumter S.C. police are still investigating the $1 trillion bill scenario, “though it remains unclear how seriously Williams himself took the attempt.”

The Valentine’s Day lunchtime incident just emerged in the media, so it may or may not have been a happy Valentine’s Day for the customer or the restaurant.

In case you’re wondering, the $100 bill is the largest denomination of US currency that is in circulation now. In the past, the government printed high-denomination notes of up to $10,000, but were officially discontinued in 1969. In the 1930s, $100,000 bills containing the image of President Woodrow Wilson were issued for Federal Reserve Bank transactions only.

An episode of The Simpsons back in 1998 called “The Trouble with Trillions” featured a $1 trillion bill with a picture of President Harry Truman.

Wholly unrelated to this incident, the Applebee’s chain got into a controversy last year at this time when it fired a waitress after a restaurant receipt was posted to Reddit. On the receipt, a customer who declined to leave a tip wrote “I give God 10%, why do you get 18?” Applebee’s premised the termination on a violation of its privacy policy.

How big a tip do you think somebody with a $1 trillion bill in their wallet should leave?

[image credit: afl2784]