A Wichita Falls restaurant’s creative response to stolen tips has gone viral on social media.
Stone Oven Pizza, a downtown eatery, is auctioning off a cowboy hat that was left behind by thieves who stole money from the restaurant’s tip jar. The incident occurred on Friday when a group of teenagers took the money and fled the business, according to co-owner Ryan Thomas.
“I heard about it at midnight as they were closing,” Thomas said. “We decided to auction off the cowboy hat left behind by the thieves, and all the funds raised would go to the three employees whose tips were stolen.”
Thomas shared the plan on the restaurant’s Facebook page, not expecting it to gain much attention. “I didn’t think it would blow up like that,” he said. “After three hours, it had like 20,000 impressions.”
Bidding on the cowboy hat started shortly after the post went live and had reached $150 by Monday morning. By early afternoon, the post had been shared 350 times and received 84 comments.
Community members have rallied behind the restaurant, commenting on the hat, the theft, and how the alleged thieves should be punished. “Hopefully they’ll get a proper punishment,” Thomas wrote in a follow-up post. “Again, we have the hat, so we kind of won?”
In response to the theft, some commenters suggested that the thieves should experience the work they took advantage of. One user, Rodney Jessica Coburn, proposed they should “have to wait tables for an evening to understand the work of the individuals they stole from.”
Others questioned the character of the thieves, with Josh White commenting, “It’s almost impossible for me to believe a ‘real’ cowboy would reduce himself to stealing someone’s tip money.”
Following the incident, Stone Oven Pizza plans to enhance the security of its tip jar. “This was just a reminder that the community has our backs and our employees’ backs,” Thomas said. “Whenever something bad happens, Wichita Falls is there to band together.”
The auction is set to close Tuesday at noon.
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