A Hooters waitress named Hope (@wafflehouseparty) was recording herself counting her tips at the end of her shift, which is a common TikTok trend. What she wasn’t counting on, however, was discovering that some of her tip money was missing, prompting her to believe that someone robbed her of the cash she collected for her tips while on the job.
She said in the clip: “OK, so I am a Hooters girl, and this week we had to dress up for St. Patty’s Day, so I just wore the regular uniform with green eye shadow, wore some like green necklaces, with some cute socks and I painted my nails.”
Hope said that she wanted to see if going the extra mile to be particularly festive for the holiday would culminate in better tips: “So let’s see if it helped my tips at all. Today was a long day I worked a double and it was pretty slow but my tips I felt like were still pretty good, so, let’s see.”
A text overlay that stays on throughout the clip spoils what happens in the video. “Watch me realize someone stole my money??” she wrote. At this point in the TikTok, Hope has no idea she was finagled; however, as she counted her gratuities, she realized that something is afoot.
After she got to $110 she stopped and said, “There is no way. Wait there’s literally no way I made this little. What the —?”
Hope looked away from the camera before picking it up and raising her voice, “I thought this was about to be me being like, ‘Fuck, I made bank.’ There’s no fucking way I made that little. I literally declared $110 that means there was $110…no way. Oh my god, oh my god I’m gonna throw the fuck up.”
Hope then went back to her money and began counting it again before the video closed out.
Judging from the comments section, there were other servers who said that they were victims of tip theft from their own co-workers. “YUP! gotta count half way through the shift and write it down. that’s how I caught my coworker,” one person wrote.
Another said, “Happened to me at twin peaks before I did my check out and I knew it was my coworker but they ‘couldn’t accuse her’ and made me pay them back for all.”
Many urged servers to never let their apron out of their sight and said that this was unfortunately a common occurrence when they worked in the service industry. “This used to happen to me ALL the time when i was serving. the worst feeling. especially knowing there’s nothing you can do. i feel your PAIN GIRL”
According to Working America, if any employee is suspected of stealing tips, businesses or other workers can file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor and/or the state labor division in the region where said business is located.
However, in a follow-up video, Hope gave a story-time about a tip-stealing incident where it wasn’t a co-worker, but a Hooters customer instead who was pilfering cash that was left on the table from other patrons.
She said in the video that she didn’t believe any of her co-workers would steal from her and that there weren’t any cameras that were pointed in the direction of the table that she noticed money had been taken from. She narrowed down the suspects to these “broke ass bitches” who only left her some change on her table as a gratuity. Hope said that when she confronted the women, two of them immediately began walking away, while one stayed behind and denied ever taking the cash. Hope then bluffed, saying that she checked the store’s cameras and saw them steal the money, plain as day.
Hope said she didn’t get her money back, but she believed their behavior was more than telling that they were guilty.
