Customers Leave Waitress Anti-Immigrant Note Instead of Tip

There’s just something about tipping that empowers certain people to leave behind their common decency and unleash their worst prejudices. Sadie Elledge says she was working her regular waitressing shift Monday at Jess’ Lunch in Harrisonburg, Virginia, when she discovered a nasty xenophobic note in lieu of a tip at one of her tables.

According to WHSV, the server says she felt uncomfortable delivering two gyros, sodas, and a Greek salad to a couple at one of her tables because they refused to talk to her and would “just nod their heads.” However, when she found the receipt she learned why. “We only tip citizens,” the note on the receipt reads.

While it really shouldn’t matter either way, it bears noting that the customers were just plain wrong in their assumptions about Elledge. She’s a born and raised U.S. citizen who has Mexican and Honduran heritage. Ironically, Elledge adds that the woman had an accent and the pair were in fact eating at an immigrant-owned business. "I just feel like it's rude and disrespectful. I've never met, I've never done anything to them," the waitress says.

For her part Elledge, says she would serve them again. “It makes me the stronger person to not let these things bother me because I know I'm a good person. I know that.” Her boss, however, isn’t so forgiving. Angeliki Floros says she’d like to see the couple come forward and apologize. “I would like for them to not come here unless they regret what they did,” she says.

Instances of rudeness and racism penned on receipts is an all too common occurrence. A customer left an almost identical message on a receipt at a Thai restaurant in Los Angeles last fall. In another incident, also in California at a Thai restaurant, an impatient customer wrote a horrible racial slur on the tip line of their receipt. Watch Elledge discuss the receipt below.

• Server Receives 'Racist' Note Instead of Tip [WHSV]

• Customer Leaves Anti-Immigration Remark Instead of Gratuity at LA Thai Restaurant [ELA]

• Receipts [E]