An Applebee’s server couldn’t believe one of his tables walked out without paying their tab. However, he realized the guest already got her karma when he found out they left something behind.
In a video with over 80,000 views, TikToker Josh Barker (@j.oshbarker) sits in his car after his shift. He explains that around 8pm, a woman came in with two young children.
“She ordered a ribeye, a salmon, an appetizer platter. They ordered five full-sized entrees,” he recounts, noting the final bill was around $120. “So right off the bat I’m a little sus but whatever. She wasn’t giving me that type of energy.”
But after he came back from cleaning up their empty dishes, he realized they walked out on their tab.
“Well, I was right,” he says.
Then, as he went to clean the table, another guest pulled him aside and showed him that the woman left her phone and a hat on the seat.
“That’s karma right there,” he remarks. Barker threw the hat in the trash but put the phone in the manager’s office and let them know the women dined and dashed.
Did She Come Back For Her Phone?
An hour later, while he took a break in the office, he heard the woman’s phone start to receive tons of notifications.
“I go in there to turn it off, and I look at her phone and she put ‘You thought’ [as a message on the phone screen],” he says. “I thought what? Your phone is still at Applebee’s.”
In a follow-up video, Barker says the woman sent “some guy” to pick up her phone the next day.
He says the man said he wasn’t the one who walked out on the tab and was just there to get the phone.
“No one is going to let you pick up someone else’s phone,” he says. His manager told the man that if the woman wants her phone back, she has to come herself.
“The guy was just like, ‘OK’ and left,” Barker says. “The phone is still there.”
Should The Restaurant Return The Phone?
While it’s illegal to walk out on a tab without paying, it’s also a grey area whether the restaurant can hang onto the phone as leverage. Although, other restaurant workers on Reddit say they’ve used forgotten property as leverage to get walkouts to finally cover their tab.
On the r/TalesFromYourServer subreddit, other workers share what they’ve done to forgotten belongings.
“I had a table walk out on a big check. One of them forgot their phone. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I accidentally dropped it so hard that it broke into pieces and was in the dumpster,” one admitted.
“My response to a thief coming back to get their lost items was the same both times. ‘We gave it to the officer that came down here to file a report, you can pick it up at the station.’ I didn’t call the cops, but I did keep his s—,” another said.
A third commented, “Weird how that phone just accidentally went into the bucket. You just hate to see it happen, but some things are unavoidable.”
How Did Viewers React?
In the comments, other servers say it’s surprisingly common for walkouts to leave important items behind in the chaos of running out on their tabs.
One wrote, “They ALWAYS LEAVE THEIR PHONES.”
“People under stress like trying to dine and dash often leave something behind because they’re flustered,” a second suggested.
“That’s happened to me TWICE. like how are you gonna leave your phone after stealing,” another said.
Others shared ridiculous stories of walkouts, leaving irreplaceable items by accident.
“One time someone jumped out the window to walk out, but they left their car keys,” a commenter shared.
Another wrote, “We had a table do the same thing we had the cops waiting for them when they came back for it one of them had a warrant so immediately arrested and went to jail.”
@j.oshbarker at least she left me 6$ cash 💀 #server #restaurant
BroBible reached out to Barker via TikTok direct message and to Applebee’s via email for further comment.