A word to the wise…

Never, EVER, steal tips from a bar or a restaurant.

You’ll become Public Enemy #1 in that community and you’ll pay the price!

Take a look at what happened when some rowdy folks decided to do something incredibly stupid during a night out on the town.

Steal tips from my friend and threaten her life? Enjoy being banned from all the bars that host karaoke.

“I worked as a bartender 10 years ago and have a good relationship with a lot of the bar staff of the bars in my town.

It’s a smallish town and bar staff never drink at their workplace on their nights off, so we all get to know each other and quite a few bartenders are older and have been slinging drinks for decades. Four of my friends host karaoke nights at these bars, and two people got those gigs with my help.

I don’t currently work at a bar, but the staff and owners of these places have known me since I was 21 and they take my input seriously on the rare occasion I need to give it.

They are big into the karaoke scene.

My friends and I go to 4 nights of karaoke a week. Most of us are in our 30s, only a couple have kids, and most of us outgrew getting hammered every time we go to the bar.

The four nights are hosted by members of our group, and we all go to support them and ensure they always have singers in the rotation even if it’s a slow night. The nights are Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat.

Story time: Last weekend at Friday’s karaoke night, it was our friend Yaz’s (31F, not her real name) night to host and the majority of our friends were there. It wasn’t crazy busy, but it wasn’t slow either.

A couple of us (including myself) volunteered to be DD and were sipping soda. Aside from one intoxicated dude getting upset that the jukebox was off, it was fine until about 11 pm (2 hours into karaoke).

This was gonna be trouble.

Right around then is when a group of younger people (ranging between 21 and 25) came in. The first signs of problems was them stealing someone’s spot at the bar while he was in the restroom and then refusing to let him have his drink and getting in his face for trying to “steal their stuff.” The bartender settled the situation quickly, then the regular sat with people on the patio.

A few minutes later is when they started giving me trouble. I went to sing a song and they yelled at me to “belt out” the song, one even ran up and started screaming at me to “scream it” (I was singing Mr Brightside by the Killers, not really a song to belt out).

Yaz intervened and I finished my song and opted to just ignore them since they seemed like lightweights who had too much. It happens.

These people were obnoxious all night, but not enough to warrant being kicked out. A couple of them were cut off, and at first that seemed to help the issue.

These folks were big-time jerks.

Last call came around, every regular pays their tab, Yaz calls up the last singer and announces everyone needs to pay their tabs and get out. Apparently, the trouble makers thought they were excluded from this and refused to sign their tabs.

The last song wraps, a few of us start helping Yaz tear down while others start collecting empty glasses for the bartender. These randos refuse to give up their drinks or pay their tab.

The bartender is annoyed and asks Yaz to try talking to them. Yaz goes up to them and takes the drinks and says “Pay your tab, the bar is closing.” One of the girls in this group grabs Yaz by the hair.

Obviously chaos erupted, and we essentially had to restrain these people while the bartender settled the tabs with the cards they gave her, then she informed them they were never allowed at that bar again.

A mistake had been made by myself, Yaz and friends: we took our eyes off the tip jar. It was empty after all of the chaos and we knew that was on us for not paying closer attention.

I do the drop offs for my friends and head home. When I start settling in for bed, the group chat goes off. One of the guys in the trouble group sent a threat to Yaz for “getting them thrown out.”

He didn’t explicitly say he’d **** her, but he did say she should be careful nothing happened to her [insert color, make and model of the car she drove that night].

Yaz did report it to the cops but since the car they saw was a rental (her actual car was getting fixed), the cops deemed it harmless. They told her to ask for a swap of cars from the rental company.

They did their research.

The next day I looked at the dude’s profile and took a screenshot of his name and picture. A little bit (really, none) of research later and I had every member of that group’s name and picture, because they posted multiple group photos of the night before. Then, I decided to be petty.

I reached out to the bartender that had to deal with that group and asked if they had security footage of what happened. They did, and when I explained to the bartender and the owner my thoughts, they agreed to send the footage to me.

I went to the other three bars during the day and spoke with management, owners, and security. I showed them the footage, the people involved, and for the first time ever I said I thought people should be 86’d (bar code for banned). All three bars agreed and asked for specifically the profile pictures and names to be sent to them.

Here they come again.

That night at another karaoke, around 10 pm this group tried to enter. They were denied entry. They tried arguing, but the security guard said it was not a negotiation and to leave before he called the cops for them trespassing.

The REAL satisfying one was Tuesday when they showed up, were again told they weren’t welcome. The bar is two blocks from the police station. The cops are typically around at the liquor store across the street.

When the bouncer told them they were banned, the dude who threatened Yaz tried bribing the bouncer. When that didn’t work he tried arguing that it was his girlfriend’s birthday and she just wanted to sing karaoke.

What an idiot!

And when that didn’t work, he took a swing at him. Cops saw EVERYTHING. Guy got arrested for assault and intoxicated in public.

I didn’t go Wednesday but my friends filled me in: the girl who assaulted Yaz on Friday threw a toddler style tantrum because every bar in town that offered karaoke had banned her. Her friends had to pick her up and carry her to the car before management called the cops.

I’m not sure if anyone told them why they had been banned, but every bouncer and bartender I’ve talked to who dealt with them after that Friday said they were too intoxicated to serve anyways.

But all of them think my little revenge was probably protecting them from liability later.”

Check out what people had to say about this.

One person shared their thoughts.

Another reader thinks the cops might need to get involved.

This Reddit user was impressed.

Another individual had a lot to say.

And one person talked about how it works in the UK.

Sounds like they’re gonna have to go to another town for karaoke from now on.

See ya later!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.