A Server Tried To Shoo Seagulls Away With A Customer’s Checkbook, Only For His Credit Card To Fly Into The River At High Tide
Pexels/Reddit
There’s a reason servers stay calm under pressure, and it’s usually because they’ve already survived something far worse.
One server at a waterfront restaurant had tables along a bulkhead, looking down on a murky river, with seagulls that would steal food from just about anywhere.
He was closing out a customer’s tab when he saw the birds swarming a recently emptied table. He swung a check book to chase them off, assuming it was his own, but it was the customer’s.
That’s when the customer’s pristine metal credit card flew out and splashed into the river at high tide.
You’ll want to keep reading to find out what Reddit had to say about this one.
Dropped a customers credit card into the river…
I’m a server/bartender at 3 different restaurants.
The server sets the scene.
The one I’ve worked at the longest is a waterfront establishment that has bulkhead seating right on the water, sitting a good 3-5 feet above the water line.
At high tide, it’s a good 3 feet deep right against the wall, and it’s a river, so the water is usually quite murky.
We have tables right against the edge, and I grabbed my customer’s check book to close him out.
The customer’s credit card was rather precarious.
He had his card placed in the little plastic card holder slot vertically, rather than horizontally, so it wasn’t as firm in there.
Usually, I’ll put their checkbook into my apron and grab my own out to grab a couple more orders on the way to the computer (which I assumed I did).
Soon some seagulls started causing even more chaos.
We have absolutely feral seagulls that will steal food directly from trays, go after leftovers from tables that just got up, etc., etc.
I saw a recently empty table that had some plates on it, and the birds were going HAM.
That’s when disaster struck.
I walked over and gently swayed the checkbook in my hand to shoo the birds away (which I thought was my own), and then his metal credit card flies right out and straight into the river…
At peak high tide. It sunk like one of those torpedo pool toys, and I was speechless.
He even said, “Did something fall in from the table?”
The server was stuck explaining the whole situation.
I then had to explain that the thing that fell was his credit card, and the water is 3 feet deep.
If it was low tide, there would be some beach left, and I would’ve been able to retrieve it.
It was so embarrassing, I cannot lie.
Hey, accidents happen.
What did Reddit have to say?
If it were this user, they’d take it in stride.
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Sometimes customers don’t react the way you’d expect them to.
Accidents tend to happen when you dine by the sea.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who decided to stop being so helpful when aiding coworkers cost him a promotion.
This user recounts a similar disaster.
Everybody has a worst day at work, and this server’s came with a splash. A metal credit card sank like a torpedo and the server had to find the words to explain it. That’s about as embarrassing as hospitality gets.
If anyone’s truly to blame here, it’s those crazy seagulls, not an overworked server just doing his best. They created the emergency, then probably stayed for the show.
Moral of the story: never trust a hungry gull.
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