A food delivery driver who thought he had been tipped $100 was “disappointed” to discover he had fallen victim to a prank.
Julio, who chose not to disclose his last name, told Newsweek he was “delivering wings for DoorDash” to a property in Texas when the incident occurred.
A note left by the customer on the delivery service’s app had informed him they “left a cash tip by the door.” When Julio went to check, he saw what he thought was a crisp $100 bill.
However, it was only once he picked up the bill and turned it over that Julio realized he had been duped. Printed on the other side of the “bill” were the words “Trump won 2024.”
The bill was designed to celebrate President Donald Trump‘s second term and, in this specific instance, used to prank an unsuspecting delivery driver.
u/Reddit/Mysterious_Check_983
Reddit/u/Mysterious_Check_983
When it comes to food delivery drivers, Americans appear torn over whether it is right to leave a tip.
In a 2019 YouGov poll of nearly 1,300 U.S. adults, while 78 percent of respondents said they always tip waiting staff in restaurants, that proportion drops to 52 percent among food delivery drivers.
But while it is one thing to choose not to tip, it’s a whole other matter to trick them in the way Julio was in this instance.
Julio said he was “disappointed that someone would actually do that to another human being,” adding that he “figured they thought it was funny. Nothing like this has happened to me before.”
The experience was especially upsetting given that, as Julio puts it, the “majority” of his paycheck comes from tips.
Upset at what happened, Julio decided to post about his experience on Reddit last Sunday, sharing a picture and a brief description of events under the handle u/Mysterious_Check_983. Writing alongside two pictures of the fake note, Julio said: “I really had my hopes up I picked it up.”
The Reddit post went viral, amassing over 84,000 upvotes, with many expressing sympathy for what happened to Julio.
One Reddit user wrote: “That’s just cruel for no reason.”
A second commented: “Report the address so they no longer can accept deliveries.”
And a third user added: “This would instantly radicalize me.”
Others suggested more extreme responses. One user said they “would literally spit in the food if someone pulled this” while another suggested the delivery driver “should return the favor by leaving a brick through their window.” A third wrote: “Egg their house, at the very least.”
Though he was upset at what happened, Julio said he has been left “extremely shocked” by some of the responses calling for him to exact revenge.
“I’m very disappointed by the sheer amount of people that wanted me to vandalize their house because of it,” he said. “That’s not how people in a society should think.”
Despite the frustration of what happened, he is instead preferring to focus on the future and getting a good tip on his next delivery.