‘That’s karma right there’: Woman dines and dashes on $120 Applebee’s tab, but what she left behind means she’ll have to come back

An Applebee’s server named Josh Barker shared a story about a customer who left without paying. The woman thought she got away with it, but she made a big mistake that came back to haunt her.

According to Bro Bible, Barker posted a video on TikTok that got over 80,000 views. In the video, he sits in his car after work and tells what happened during his shift. Around 8pm, a woman walked into the restaurant with two young kids.

The woman ordered a lot of food. She got a ribeye steak, salmon, an appetizer platter, and five full meals total. The bill came out to about $120. Barker said he felt suspicious right away, but the woman seemed normal, so he didn’t think much of it.

The walkout left behind something very important

After Barker cleared their empty plates, he came back to find the table empty. The woman and her kids had left without paying the $120 bill. He knew his gut feeling was right.

But then something interesting happened. As Barker started cleaning the table, another customer stopped him. The customer showed him that the woman left her phone and a hat on the seat. 

“That’s karma right there,” Barker said. He threw the hat in the trash and gave the phone to his manager. He told them what happened. This isn’t the first time Applebee’s staff have gone above and beyond for their customers.

An hour later, Barker was on break in the office when the woman’s phone started getting lots of notifications. He picked it up to turn it off and saw a message on the lock screen. It said “You thought.” Barker laughed because the phone was still at Applebee’s.

The next day, the woman sent a man to pick up her phone. The man told Barker’s manager he wasn’t involved in the walkout and just came for the phone. But the manager refused to give it to him. She said the woman had to come get it herself. 

The man left, and the phone is still at the restaurant. Like many controversial situations these days, people often double down on their original stance even when proven wrong.

Many servers in the comments said walkouts often leave their phones behind. One person advised him to give the phone to police, saying, “You guys should give it to the police station and they can tell her she needs to pay before they give it back lol.”

Another commenter said it happens because people get stressed and flustered when they’re trying to run out. Another server shared that someone once jumped out a window to avoid paying, but left their car keys behind.