Waitress Who Claimed She Got Anti-Gay Receipt No Longer Employed At Restaurant

The receipt on the left is the version the waitress posted to Facebook, which shows no tip and a note saying the customers disapprove of the waitress’ “lifestyle.” On the right is a copy of the receipt provided by the customers to NBC News, which they claim shows they left a 18% tip.

Yet another development in the tale of the New Jersey waitress who recently claimed that she was stiffed out of a tip by diners’ who disapproved of her being a lesbian. Over the weekend, the restaurant at the center of this story announced that the waitress is no longer an employee there.

In a post on its Facebook page, the restaurant states that “this is not a simple, straight-forward matter and we have conducted our own internal investigation.”

It also calls the results of that investigation “inconclusive as to exactly what happened” but then adds that “in light of the investigation and recent events,” the two parties have made a “joint decision that [the waitress] will no longer continue her employment at our restaurant. We wish her well in the future.”

Oddly enough, this announcement does little to clear up exactly what happened that night. The waitress made headlines around the world when she shared a photo of a receipt leaving her zero tip along with a note that said she was not receiving a gratuity because the customers did not approve of her lifestyle.

This resulted in a widespread outpouring of support. The waitress received thousands of dollars from people who felt she’d been unjustly stiffed on the bill. She stated that she would donate this money to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Then a family came forward — albeit anonymously — to say they were the diners who ate that meal, but that they not only didn’t leave that note on the receipt, they actually tipped $18. To prove their point, the family showed NBC News copies of their receipt and a copy of their credit card statement showing that they had been charged the full amount, including the tip, by the restaurant.

Following this rebuttal from the diners, supposed friends and colleagues of the waitress began speaking to various news outlets, calling into question other claims the waitress had made in the past.

And last week, a rep for Wounded Warrior could not locate any record of a donation from the waitress, causing some to wonder what had happened with the money she had promised to donate.

If the owners of the restaurant wanted to make this issue go away, their statement should have provided more detail. Instead, the vague tone of the announcement only serves to fuel more speculation about what may have actually occurred that evening.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist