Server who received $10,000 tip at Benton Harbor cafe fired
Management insists firing had nothing to do with giant tip
BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (WNDU) - It was last week we told you the story of a Benton Harbor waitress who received a $10,000 tip on a $32 check.
Now, a sad footnote to that upbeat story. Earlier this week, waitress Linsey Boyd was fired by her employers at the Mason Jar Cafe.
There are more questions than answers emerging from this Mason Jar mystery. There is a ton of spouting off on social media, but nobody is going on-camera to talk about what happened.
When our Erika Jimenez visited the Mason Jar Cafe in Benton Harbor on Friday, there was every indication she was covering an unflagging feelgood story. After all, a customer who’d just attended a late friend’s memorial service had chosen to leave a $10,000 tip to remember his friend.
That anonymous customer asked his waitress, Linsey Boyd, to share the windfall with her co-workers — which she did.
“We’re all super grateful for it,” said Ana White, server at the Mason Jar Cafe. “I’ve worked here for six years, and I’ve never seen, I’ve seen big tips, but I’ve never seen $10,000. So, that was very kind and nice of him to do that because, I mean, we’re all different and we all have different backgrounds, but we all are going through something different so that amount of money helped us all a lot.”
That was Friday.
Early this week, word broke on social media that Linsey Boyd had been unceremoniously canned by the owners of the Mason Jar Cafe. Those social media posts alluded to a wave of toxicity among the wait staff in the wake of the outsized tip.
WNDU 16 News Now was unable to confirm that alleged toxicity.
I talked to co-owner Jayme Cousins off-camera. She said she was limited in what she could say because this is a personnel matter. She did, however, confirm that she fired Linsey Boyd. She was adamant though that the firing had nothing to do with the tip nor, she said, did it have anything to do with what followed the tip.
The flap doesn’t appear to have hurt business at the Mason Jar Cafe. Late Wednesday morning, the parking lot was full, and guests were inside waiting to be seated.
I tracked down Linsey Boyd who emailed me late this morning telling me she “drove out of town this morning to spend time with family and get away.” She went on to say it has been a pretty rough week.
We also went to Baroda and spoke with Linsey’s former husband, Nathan Huff, who described Linsey as a great mom who is very upset right now and just taking some time away.
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