There seems to be another story every week about waiters teaming up to reclaim their tips from penny-pinching bosses, so there is something refreshing about a waiter who turned the tables, instead allegedly pilfering $91,000 in fake tips from his employer, Todd English's Olives restaurant off Union Square. Investigators say that for the past two years 33-year-old waiter Mohammad Siraj would just add extra tip money onto his checks in the restaurant's computer.
According to a New York Post source the way the crime worked out the "tips" that Siraj was claiming in the computer were getting paid out by the restaurant, not patrons. Which might help explain why it took so long for the restaurant's bookkeepers to figure out what was going on. Eagle-eyed tourists are much more likely to question an inflated charge than an overworked number cruncher working for a fiance-fleeing celebrity chef.
In the end, though, they did notice—because people always seems to spot these sorts of things eventually—and Siraj was arrested on Tuesday and charged with grand larceny. He is currently locked up with bail set at $5,000.
