Hudson Valley Business Says it Caught Man Stealing Tips on Camera

A local business has shared footage that appears to show a man boldly taking tips from the counter of a Hudson Valley business.

The footage shows a bearded man in a blue shirt with long hair in a ponytail approaching the counter at a local ice cream stand. While the employee is not looking, the man takes out a yellow cloth and appears to cover up the tip jar before picking it up and walking away.

However, while this may seem like a cut-and-dry case of thievery, the business may have to bear some responsibility due to another incident that happened last year.

Footage released

Video footage was released on Facebook by the owners of the Dairy Queen on Route 9 in Hyde Park where the alleged theft took place.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice...

If the scene seems familiar, that's because a similar incident happened at the exact same location just one year ago.

In 2022 a different man in an orange shirt was seen stealing the tip jar at the very same Dairy Queen on Route 9 in Hyde Park. Just like in this most recent incident, the footage was posted to Dairy Queen's Facebook page and the business' owner had some harsh words for the alleged thief.

Who's fault is it this time?

Of course, anyone who steals tips from hard-working employees is in the wrong, but after it happens once any reasonable person would take some measures to make sure it never happened again.

It appears that Dairy Queen didn't learn anything after the last theft nor did they take any precautions to secure the tempting jar of tips. The footage of the most recent incident shows the large tip jar located in the same place on the outside counter, out of sight from the employees inside. The tip jar is simply sitting there without a chain or anything else securing it to the building.

Hopefully, the business owner will take some extra precautions now that it's happened again so that those hard-working employees don't continue to get ripped off. I think the right thing to do would be to compensate the employees for their loss since the business owner knew that there was a history of tip theft at that location and didn't do anything to prevent it.

What do you think? Does the employee bear any responsibility or is this strictly the alleged thief's fault? Let us know your thoughts on our Facebook page or by dropping us a text on our mobile app.

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