ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Employees at a restaurant in Old Town West in Alexandria say an estimated $200 was stolen out of their tip jar. They believe the thief was a DoorDash driver.
It happened just before 7 p.m. on Aug. 13.
Randy Phillips, a manager of Sunday in Saigon, and the owner's husband, told WUSA9 that a person came and told the employee behind the counter that they were there to pick up a DoorDash order.
"He gave us the name, but t wasn't ready. The clerk went to the back to see what was going on with the order if it was ready or not, and I guess that's when he decided to help himself to the tip jar," said Phillips.
He says when the employee came back out front, the person had left. They only realized that he had stolen the tips later in the night, after reviewing the restaurant's surveillance cameras.
While the clerk was in the back, video shows the person reach into the tip jar, three times, before they walk out the door.
The thing is, it wasn't just a few bucks in the jar. Phillips estimates there was about $200 in the tip jar. He says at the time, they would only empty it once a week, on Sundays.
"He leaves it out to promote tips, people see tips they're more likely to put money in the tip jar," said Phillips.
He says the crew planned to empty the jar and split the tips Sunday, but discovered it was empty, and began to piece everything together.
"It's the money they earned. it was a punch in the gut to them," said Phillips.
He also questioned why a person who delivered for DoorDash, and likely also counts on tips to bring in extra income, would steal someone else's tips.
"How would he feel if someone took his tip on DoorDash, I'm sure he lives on tips too," he said.
A DoorDash spokesperson shared the following statement with WUSA9 Tuesday night:
"DoorDash has a zero tolerance policy for theft of any kind on our platform, and the Dasher in question has been removed from our platform."
The company also shared that the dasher responsible has been deactivated, and that they'll be providing a courtesy payment to the restaurant to make up for the funds that were stolen.
The owner of Sunday in Saigon, told WUSA9 Tuesday night that she offered to reimburse her employees for the stolen tips, but that they turned down her offer. She was grateful to hear that DoorDash now plans to give them that money.
Phillips says it's sad that they now have to keep a close eye on the tip jar.
"You don't think about that kind of thing, that's why they left the money out. We've been here several years and never had an incident," he said.