Texas restaurant’s response goes viral after tip jar is stolen, cowboy hat left behind

A Texas pizzeria is being celebrated for how it handled its tip jar being stolen.

On Dec. 28, Stone Oven Pizza, a restaurant in Wichita Falls, Texas, posted on Facebook about an incident that took place near closing time the previous day. According to witnesses, a group of teens swiped the contents of an employee tip jar — but seemingly left a clue behind.

“Last night, our crew ran into an incident where some teenagers stole the tips out of the tip jar,” the original post reads. “However, luckily enough, they left this hat.”

The evidence in question was a tan-colored Justin Bent Rail cowboy hat.

“We’re not a big fan of hats around here, however, we know the beautiful community of Wichita Falls is, and we would like to open up an auction,” the post continues, adding that the highest bidder in the comments section by that following Tuesday afternoon would win “this authentic cowboy jicama-giga!”

The pizza shop stated that all proceeds would be divided evenly among the three team members that lost their tips that night — and “balance will be restored to the Multiverse!”

Several people applauded the pizzeria’s response in the comments section — and many posted bids on the hat or left suggestions about how to catch the culprits.

“Most likely, that hat has never been outside the city limits,” wrote one Facebook user.

“keep it and use it as your new tip jar,” suggested another.

“Yall seen Cinderella?” asked someone else. “Line up all the men in the kingdom. We’ll find that prince charming!”

“Apparently the kids made a mad dash to run out the front door,” Ryan Thomas, co-owner of Stone Oven Pizza, tells TODAY.com. “Then one of the kids ran past the order window, reached in the tip bowl, grabbed all the money out of it and got through the door, at which point, I guess, one of the kids lost the cowboy hat.”

Thomas says his employees filed a police report that night and decided to auction off the hat. Two bidders offered $200 for it and came close to snatching the woolen crown — until its real owner came forward.

“Over the last couple of days we have gotten some amazing responses to this post, and the community has opened up their hearts to our employees,” reads the update posted on Dec. 30. “What this attention also did was allow us to find the original owner of the hat… not the teenager that dropped it, but the gentleman whose truck was broken into that those kids had stolen it from.”

The trio of employees decided to return the hat to its original owner and were rewarded with $50 bonuses for their “altruism and compassion.”

Thomas says, in the aftermath of the incident, the community has added a few hundred dollars to the pot for the trio to split, too.

“Several people did go ahead and come by and just, out of the goodness of their heart, donated money to the staff over those couple days,” he says.

When asked about the fate of the thieves, Thomas says he isn’t trying to send anybody to jail.

“I’d rather somebody make them come back and wash dishes for eight hours straight or something,” he says.

Thomas’ proposed punishment calls to mind the case of Rosemary Hayne, an Ohio woman convicted of assault in 2023 for throwing a burrito bowl at a Chipotle employee. A judge sentenced her to work at least 20 hours per week at a fast-food restaurant for two months to reduce her jail time.

“A lot of people would do well to work in the service industry for two years out of high school rather than go immediately into college,” he says. “I’m hoping they’ve learned their lesson with as viral as this went and as much publicity as it had. Maybe they’ll turn over a new leaf.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

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