Worcester restaurant owner feels 'violated' after man steals tip jar
WORCESTER - Employees were working in overdrive at B.T.'s Fried Chicken and BBQ Sunday night during the busy Super Bowl rush.
Billy Nemeroff is one of the owners of the popular restaurant on the corner of Park Avenue and Chandler Street. Nemeroff said his team was in the middle of peak orders Sunday evening at 6:45 when a man walked in and lingered in the restaurant lobby.
The man approached the register and told employees he was going to wait to place an order until his girlfriend arrived. In the meantime, the man told an employee he wanted to pay with his phone, but his phone battery was dead. The employee offered to charge it and turned around to plug it in. It was during that time employees said the man grabbed the tip jar and left with it. There were hundreds of dollars of tips inside.
The man left the phone behind.
"It wasn't so much the amount of money as it was the feeling of being violated," said Nemeroff. "My manager turned around to go and charge the phone and at that point he decided to grab the tip jar. He kind of grabbed it turned around and put his shirt over it."
Nemeroff said he plans to pay-up for the losses, so his employees still receive their tips.
The entire ordeal was caught on surveillance video.
Worcester Police are investigating.