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An ACL Festival attendee reportedly got caught taking food from a hot dog vendor. Here's why she's being dubbed the 'hot dog bandit.'
A woman reportedly got caught taking a hotdog from an Austin City Limits (ACL) vendor without paying. Now, the internet is calling her the festival’s “hot dog bandit” while shaming her publicly.
A TikToker who goes by Grrrrlonline (@grrrrlonline) posted a video from weekend 1 of ACL. In it, the content creator alleges that a woman stole from a food vendor after ACL.
Grrrrlonline posted a clip of the woman in question. “Does anyone know this girl? She thought it would be so funny to just take food from hard-working food vendors after ACL and not pay …. ALL of her friends also thought it was so funny,” the video’s on-screen text says.
The video reached the supposed hot dog thief, but not before countless commenters tried to identify her.
Who Is The ACL Hot Dog Bandit?
Grrrrlonline’s post gained immediate traction, which led commenters to the culprit. Multiple viewers tagged a woman named Harper (@harper.tishgart), publicly tying her to the incident.
Harper eventually posted a statement, admitting that she took the hot dog.
“I’m here to say that I stole the [hot dog],” Harper said in her statement. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m the girl in this video, and I want to own what I did. I took food from a vendor outside ACL and didn’t pay for it. It was disrespectful and entitled, and I’m embarrassed that I did it,” she wrote. “I come from a service industry family. I know how hard this work is, so I should have known better.”
When the content creator came forward, Grrrrlonline disabled the comment section—but not before updating their audience. “UPDATE: she has been found, she has also apologized,” the content creator wrote. “We hope Harper finds time this upcoming weekend 2 to donate some money to food vendors outside of ACL. Comments will be disabled.”
Why Did She Do It?
The situation unraveled within hours, but many everyday onlookers still wanted to know one thing.
“Why’d you even do it, though?” one viewer asked.
Other commenters asked the very same question.
“I still don’t understand … If you come from an industry working family, knew it was wrong, why [did] you still [do] it?” another questioned.
Did She Pay The Vendor Back?
Other viewers said they were glad the content creator was taking responsibility. But they wanted her to pay for the hot dog.
Harper shared some details about the vendor in her statement, but she doesn’t know where she got the food from.
“This man was working to make a living … I treated something that belonged to him like a joke,” she said. “It wasn’t one. I want to apologize to him directly and pay him for what I took. … Please send him my way privately.”
In response to this, many commenters urged her to find the man herself.
Some viewers offered an alternative; she could donate to a food bank in lieu of finding the vendor. ACL’s organizers routinely donate leftover food products from the festival to the Central Texas Food Bank. The precedent, it seems, could be beneficial for the festival’s attendees.
BroBible reached out to Grrrrlonline and Harper via TikTok direct message as well as C3 Presents via email for comment.