I work in a fast food restaurant in my town, I’ve been working there since 2024 when I was a freshman in high school. I have this coworker Caster (fake name), I really enjoy working with him, we work a lot and we till each other about our struggles sometimes. The neighborhood we’re in isn’t the best, lots of homeless people and very low income families, me and Caster being from those families (even though I’m a little more privileged than Caster) Anyways, we usually work together but for some reason, my manager decided to put me on the morning shift while caster is on the night shift.
On one Saturday afternoon, I was with new coworker Solo (fake name), I was training him so I decided to put him on drive thru. I forgot to say this earlier, but even though we’re in a low income area, we do see a lot of well financed people ordering from our restaurant. Anyways, while Sole was on drive thru, he took this guy’s order. The guy had a nice car and he was using his metal American Express card, so he had money. The guy ordered and Solo gave him his food, but I guess the guy drove off to fast and left his card, Sole asked me what to do with it and I just said put it in the cash register. Fast forward a few hours later and it was time for the night shift to come in. I told Caster about the card and he ain’t seem to care so I just left. On that upcoming Tuesday, my manager came in to do his checking and he noticed the card, I told him that some guy left it and he said “make sure you asked for the name on the card before giving it out.” I noted and nodded.
Late that week, we got a call, I answered it and a guy was on the phone yelling, I asked him what’s wrong and he said some employee stole his card and was using. I asked him does he know who it is and he said “yes, and I have the pictures to prove it.”
I gave him my personal number so I can be nosy and see who the person is, he said the employee was using it at the store to buy groceries and baby food and was also using it at a Local Smoke Shop. In my mind I was thinking it was a Solo, but then he sent me the pictures of Caster and my heart stopped.
Now, I didn’t want to snitch on him because he was using it for necessities but I also didn’t want my manager to find out I was covering for him, which could lead to us both getting fired.
So I snitched and sent pictures of the message and pictures of Caster to my manager.
My manager then called me and said Caster has been fired.
The guy is currently pressing charges against Caster.
I guess Caster knew who snitch and he blocked me on EVERYTHING.
I feel bad but at the same time I’m confused because Caster got paid the most out of everyone at the time of his firing.
My manager wrote the guy a check.
I feel bad so AITA?
NTA
Firstly: Don´t feel bad for snitching on a criminal.
Secondly: What do you think would have happened if you hadn´t “snitched”? Sooner or later the guy would have reached your manager, sent him the pictures of Caster, and Caster still would have gotten fired. You couldn´t have changed that by not snitching.
> Sooner or later the guy would have reached your manager, sent him the pictures of Caster
Or the guy would’ve contacted the cops, given them the photos, and they would’ve arrested Caster. Perhaps while he was working.
Dude wasn’t going to get away with it either way, and OP might’ve gotten in trouble himself for trying to hide a crime.
NTA. He chose to steal the credit card for his personal use, he deserved to be fired.
That said, it really was not your business to see who did the stealing. You should’ve forwarded info directly to the manager and let them handle it.
NTA, you can’t just steal from someone and expect to get away with it.
On a side note, the smoke shop is not a ‘necessity’
Mostly NTA. Caster is in the FO zone. You didn’t cause that, and regardless of what happened, he would have ended up there. The guy wouldn’t stop calling the place if you didn’t report it. If you hadn’t you would have been a party to the crime.
Here’s the problem though, when he called you should have immediately given it over to your manager. Not only were you entering into dubious moral territory by doing it over your personal phone and not immediately turning it over, you were putting yourself in legal jeopardy. Regardless of whether you eventually turned it over, for a period of time you were essentially (not a lawyer, YMMY) an accessory after the fact. You were aware of a crime not yet reported that you had a direct connection and specific knowledge pertaining to. If this guy continues to press charges, you will be lucky if no one ever asks the question of why you were dealing with it on your private line and why there was even a nominal delay in reporting.
We really need to stop using the word “snitching”.
You’re not children in a playground telling on someone for hogging the slide or refusing to let you play a game.
You’re adults. This is reporting a crime.
I do regret reporting that guy who knocked over my RadioShack (actually I worked at two on two halves of the country, And I pinky promise no robberies I was aware of, I just smoked weed out the back doors constantly)
For legal purposes I must say that you smell like marijuana after you smoke in your little mildly formal shirt, so nobody ever could have gone past me and there were always two or three people in the business – the nostalgia for little kids (including a thirty something) that I never became friends with is very odd
I mean “stealing” a 4 piece nugget at close because they didn’t sell and were getting tossed out or something like that, don’t do a co worker like that. Actually stealing from a guy by using his credit card to go shopping yea man repot that shit to the cops even.
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I agree with you, but OP is a sophomore in high school. He wanted the gossip first. Hopefully he learned that there is a price to pay for gossip, he lost a friend.
Calling a high schooler a goddamn idiot for not knowing corporate call-redirect protocol on their first job is a bit much. They saw something wrong, acted on it, and the guy who stole a customer’s card isn’t there anymore because of it. Could they have handled the callback differently? Probably. But they were figuring it out in real time, not reading from a policy manual. Cut them some slack.
High school freshman, rough neighborhood, and their instinct was to do the right thing even when it cost them a friend. That’s not idiocy. Critique the method all you want, but mocking someone’s age for having integrity is kind of a strange flex. Plenty of full grown adults would have just looked the other way.
I don’t understand why you gave out your personal number to send the evidence to instead of the restaurant’s number. You may have been curious, but it wasn’t within the realm of your responsibilities as a restaurant employee. That type of action can get you into trouble along with the thief. Being nosy is one thing. Putting yourself in a situation where you have evidence of a crime, and you are not the party that should have received it, complicates the situation. In the future, no matter how much you want to know, DO NOT ever give out your personal number or take information like that with your private contact. Always go through the employer. At the very least, you have opened your personal phone to scrutiny from the parties involved. The lawyers could subpoena you to provide phone records. It’s just a bad thing all the way around. Don’t do that again.
NTA for giving the information to your employer. That was the right thing to do. But you are one for accepting it on a personal line and for inserting yourself into that situation when you didn’t need to do so.
This is not a real story. In the real world, the Amex card would have been given to a manager for safekeeping. An employee giving out their personal number and not passing the customer to a manager would be a reason for termination. It is not the employee’s job to interject themselves into business that is not theirs.