Couple Arrested for Refusing to Tip at Restaurant
Any successful restaurant owner knows that the key to forming a stable base of repeat customers is calling the police on your patrons when they refuse to pay gratuity for bad service. At least that was the strategy employed by an employee of a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania pub recently who called the cops on two patrons who paid the entirety of their bill minus the added gratuity because they said their service was subpar. They were charged with theft of $16 since the gratuity was part of the bill.
In Tennessee, anyone who refused to pay an added gratuity in the same manner could technically be charged with theft of $500 or less under the Tennessee statute, since taking food and services of the restaurant without paying for it in its entirety does technically meet the requirements of the theft statute that a person knowingly obtain or exercise control over a person’s property without that person’s consent (in this case without paying for it). Theft in East Tennessee of $500 or less is a Class A Misdemeanor, punishable by up to eleven months and twenty-nine days in jail and a $2500 fine.
It is probably not likely that the couple in the situation above will have to spend any time in jail for refusing to pay a sixteen dollar tip, but it is a remote possibility. Mandatory gratuities seem to be a recipe for below-average service and a source of frustration for many restaurant-goers, but the added gratuity is technically a part of the bill and should be treated like every other expense listed on the check. Diners would be well-advised to go ahead and just pay the gratuity, even in the face of poor service, in order to avoid an embarrassing situation like being arrested in the middle of a pub because the pub employee really wants his sixteen bucks and also to avoid the unlikely, but completely possible, charge of theft that could accompany such a decision.
Source: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local-beat/Time-In-Prison--70426052.html?yhp=1
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