The incident transpired at Lucci’s, an Italian restaurant in Pennsylvania. The waitress amended low-value credit card tips so that she got more money, allegedly using the funds to continue a drug problem. She then told her judge that she had come clean off heroin two months ago though.
Customers began to notice and complained about overcharging however. As the waitress changed $5 to $15 or even $25, excelling the value of the food they had bought, the manager began searching for the server at fault.
Restaurant manager Josh Wolf became aware of the forgeries when two customers complained about overcharging on the same day. Gathering the receipts issued by 30 year old Gina Haney, he noticed she had performed the trick on at least 20 customers.
She confessed her actions to police, saying that she added a “1” or “2” to customer tips to support a drug addiction. She later denied this before her arraignment on Wednesday when questioned about her actions, however.
The manager has apologised to the affected customers and attempted to refund as many as possible. He said “We tried to go through and get as many of the customers’ names, numbers and call them and take care of it and refund them.”
Haney has now been fired from her job and new procedures have been implemented at the restaurant to ensure that other staff could not repeat her crime in the future. Wolf assured customers “Nobody should have to worry about it again, coming here”, attempting to rebuild any confidence that may have been lost after Haney’s frauds.
