Caught on cam: Thief uses counterfeit bill at ice cream shop, steals the tips

A downtown Fort Myers ice cream shop was robbed of its tips – and that’s not all.

The manager of Scoops on First hopes that sharing the surveillance footage of the thief will help catch him. She also wants to warn other businesses to secure their tips and be on the lookout for fake bills.

“It hurts, it hurts. It definitely hurts, especially in these unpredicted times that we’re dealing with,” said manager Tricia Davis.

She said she was cleaning tables outside Tuesday afternoon when a young man and a young woman came into the shop. The man helped himself to the tip jar – and it was caught on video.

“Apparently he had already taken my tips at that point, I had no idea.”

Then the pair ordered.

“He said he’d like two strawberry sundaes, which were a little odd for me.”

He handed over a $100 bill.

“I checked everything and I put it in the drawer and I started counting my change to give him and I’m like something’s not adding up. I’m like it doesn’t look right, so I checked it again. It had the line, it had the watermark.”

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