So a lot of craziness has been going around. The world has lost its mind over the coronavirus (COVID-19) and they seem to be acting irrationally as well as resorting to petty crimes because of desperation.
Okay maybe petty crimes might be a bit of an exaggeration, but maybe not so much. You can make the call for yourself.
Today, we were unusually busy considering the slow down in business due to the restrictions on socializing and going out "unnecessarily" to try to limit and reduce the spread of the virus. One customer placed an online order that after all the at least 10 maybe even 12 sandwiches were completed with the extra snacks had a total order cost of $150. Yep, you read that right. Someone ordered enough food to run them $150. I mean it was clearly for several different people, but still.
As a very nice and very much appreciated gesture, the customer left a $20 bill in the tip jar. It was completely unnecessary, but I really do appreciate it because I ended up with $10.42 in tips today, and that's nearly double the average day of tips before all of this virus craziness.
At some point, we got a relatively sketchy customer. He placed an order for a hot sub and a cold sub, and then after ordering and getting his sandwich all dressed, he strangely waited for his sandwiches at the meat case. That's odd because after you order anything you're supposed to make your way towards the register and pay for the food you ordered. So I asked him if he had been rung up, and either he couldn't hear me because it does get loud in the store, or he was playing dumb. I'll give him benefit of the doubt since sometimes I can't hear that well, and I might not have spoken as loudly as possible without screaming.
Anyways, my boss goes up and asks if he's paid yet, to which he finally says "no". He gets directed to go to the register, and he seemingly unwillingly pays for his food. After that, as I heard since I didn't see it happen, the tip jar made a noise of being placed down which doesn't make any sense. If you want to put in tips, you just toss it in, no need to actually move the jar. My boss's wife turns around and suspects something because that same customer had quickly put his hand into his pocket. Naturally to not jump to conclusions of larceny, she goes to covertly check the tip jar. She notices that the $20 bill disappeared to which she decided to confront the customer.
It was mostly out of principle for her since she doesn't get tips since she owns the restaurant. The customer initially denies that he took anything out of the tip jar, to which she says "we can do one of two things: you can either put the money back in, or we can call the cops". At this point, my boss was present and then called the cops. After that, the customer's two options became as follows: he could put the $20 back in and never return to this store, or he can wait around and get arrested for stealing money. He apparently magically had $20 to put back into the tip jar, and then he bolted. We got his license plate written down and the cops were informed of everything.
Looking back at it, I see it as partially not that big of a deal. At the end of the day $20 is not really that much money. I had ended up splitting that 4 ways with my coworkers, so I technically only got $5 of it. And $5 doesn't last very long, not in today's world. It was more out of principle and doing the right thing. I don't know if the customer needed the $20 or not, I don't know if he's struggling financially and tried to get some free food by not paying for it and then trying to take back the "money he had lost". I don't know where he's at in life, but going to commit crimes at any level is not worth it. Especially if he had been caught. Not to say that if you can get away with it that everything is justified, but if you're caught, don't compromise your own integrity and character anymore by trying to lie about it.
Everyone is on edge and ready to burst. Even I noticed for myself that I am a bit quicker on my temper, contrary to working on cooling my temper. Things are stressful because everything is so touchy these days, and it's just a rough kind of week because everyone is so paranoid.
At the end of the day, whatever happens happens. It's between you and God to do the right thing. I know that I need to still work on myself and that I probably do things that God would frown upon. I don't write this to sound like I'm way better than the customer today. I just thought it was an interesting story and then how it can lead to examination of oneself to see what we do on a daily basis or what we do when times are stressful and things aren't going the way we had originally planned for it all to go.
Desperation leads to more desperation if one is not careful. When times get tough or are stressful for any reason, be wary of your actions. You never know who is watching, and if no one is, God is.
Do the right thing and no one can ever get mad or upset at you.
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