
By Mike Hazlip–
Surveillance camera video captured Thursday night from a local Citrus Heights eatery shows a man apparently waiting for an order instead grab a tip jar from the counter and walk out without the order.
Antojitos Locos owner Tiffany Martinez told The Sentinel in a phone call Saturday that the man was from the meal delivery service DoorDash and was there to pick up a customer’s order. He became agitated because the order was not ready and began using profanity before taking the tip jar and leaving the restaurant, according to Martinez.
Martinez said she has the man’s name from DoorDash records, and has notified police about the incident, as well as DoorDash. She estimates there was about $20 in the jar at the time of the theft.
Citrus Heights police said information about the incident was not immediately available Saturday night.
Meal delivery drivers with DoorDash, known as Dashers, have become increasingly impatient, Martinez says. She has asked the company not to send the same individual to her restaurant, and is considering cancelling the agreement with DoorDash completely.
A 2019 report by KRON4-Bay Area shows a Dasher in Berkeley taking packages from an apartment lobby after delivering a meal to a customer. In a statement to the news outlet, DoorDash said the company take incidents like these seriously, and said the Dasher was “permanently deactivated” from the platform.
Other Dashers have also been deactivated for breaking the company’s code of conduct, according to multiple news reports. To become a Dasher, an individual must be 18 or older, have some form of transportation, provide a driver’s license number, social security number, and consent to a background check, according the the company’s website.
Thursday’s incident comes about two years after another individual stole the tip jar from the same restaurant. That previous incident was a transient from the area, according to Martinez. Tip jars have also been reported stolen from other local businesses, including Starbucks, according to police logs from 2019.
Antojitos Locos is located at the intersection of Sunrise Boulevard and Antelope Road, at 7815 Sunrise Blvd.