GASTONIA, N.C. — Surveillance video shows a woman stealing the tip jar from a Gastonia restaurant when no one was looking; it now has over a thousand shares on Facebook.
The workers are hoping it helps identify the woman who stole their hard-earned money. They say it happened right under their nose, but a camera above the cash register caught the crime perfectly.
After looking around to see if anyone was watching, a woman slid the tip jar at the CDA Store in Gastonia right under the counter, taking it with her.
"How dare you, you learn as a kid not to steal," said Madison Carridan, a crew member at the store. "It's just not right, stealing something that’s not yours."
It started off like any other transaction.
"We've never seen her before, we know our customers and she was a new customer,” Carridan said.
The woman paid for her order and left. A few minutes later, she came back for more food and saw her opportunity while she was waiting.
"How did we not see that? I was standing right here cooking her hash browns and she just did it, acting like nothing, like she's done it before,” Carridan said.
Workers didn't notice it was gone until another customer tried to leave a tip.
It only had 25 or 30 dollars in it but that money goes a long way for these workers.
"It goes towards our kids, our gas, we use it," she said. "It’s not free money, we actually work for it."
The restaurant has been in business for decades, and something like this has only happened once before. The owner filed a police report and put the video on Facebook hoping someone will recognize her.
"Someone will see her and know her," Carridan said. "It has to be someone’s mom or grandma or sister."
So many people have seen the video, that regular customers have been giving bigger tips today.