(Useless) Witness to A Crime
Tonight, photographer Joe Mears and I stopped to get a bite to eat at Lotus, a frequent stop for WCCO photographers. The staff there is a family, and they treat us like family.
As Joe waited for his mock duck with peapods, and I waited for my soup, we sat at a table right by the counter. Both of us were reading newspapers. Joe read the Pioneer Press. I read The Onion.
A couple minutes later, we hear someone say, “What the … Someone stole the tip jar!” They keep a tip jar right on the counter, and apparently someone grabbed it and walked off.
You would think having two professional journalists in the restaurant would have been helpful, as we are trained to observe. Instead, we were totally useless, and we witnessed absolutely nothing. A police officer came into the restaurant a minute later, and he and another customer went off looking for the thief. Heroes. Making us look bad.
We left an extra-large tip to try and help replenish what was taken from the tip jar, but I felt like such a moron! I can’t believe a crime took place less than ten feet away from me, and I didn’t even see it. That said, this was a really funny article.
(Repost from WCCO-TV DeBlog, 11/20/07)