Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania eatery sues customer who left $3,000 tip on $13 meal– his gesture wasn’t as kind as it seemed
A Pennsylvania restaurant reportedly filed a civil lawsuit against a customer after he left a $3,000 tip for a waitress. Kind as the gesture seemed, it was not as simple as the waitress first thought.
Back in June 2022, the staff at Alfredo’s Cafe in Scranton were shocked to find that Eric Smith, a customer, left this huge tip after coming to the cafe and ordering a stromboli which only cost $13.25. Mariana Lambert, the waitress who served him, became emotional and overwhelmed upon seeing his gesture.
“It really meant a lot to me because everyone’s going through stuff. It really touched my heart. I still can’t believe it. I’m still in shock,” Lambert later said.
However, finding the move obviously unusual and to make sure Smith had not accidentally left the money, Matt Martini of Alfredo’s Cafe went to verify the figure and collect additional ID from the customer. Interestingly, Smith had written ‘Tips for Jesus’ on the check.
Martini asked Smith about the note, and it is then that the customer revealed that he had left the tip after being inspired by a social media trend called ‘Tips for Jesus.’ He decided to do it after seeing how hospitable Lambert was.
Things took a turn for the worse
Martini tried to make sure the tip was above board, but things only got worse. A few weeks later, the cafe received a letter saying Smith was disputing the charge for the tip.
Zachary Jacobson, a worker at the cafe, recalled, according to Unilad, “We thought somebody was actually trying to do a good thing. And then now we are, what, three months later? Not even, and there’s nothing. There’s nothing to show for it at this point.”
Alfredo’s had already given the $3,000 to Lambert. Therefore, the eatery had to repay Smith out of their own pockets. They tried to communicate with Smith on Facebook, but eventually launched a civil lawsuit against him.
“Unfortunately, we had to file charges through the magistrate’s office because now we’re just out of this money at this point. And he told us to sue him. So that’s what we’re going to end up doing, I guess,” Jacobson said.
Community members launched a GoFundMe to help Alfredo’s raise funds, but the fundraiser was shut down after the business refused to accept cash.
How Mizzou planted its flag in Pennsylvania recruiting
Sitting together during an official visit weekend in June, Jack Abercrombie and Tim Taggart started talking about the next wave of Pennsylvania talent.
Missouri, which anchored in its 2025 signing class with signal caller Matt Zollers, wasn’t done looking east, and Taggart had just the guy for the Tigers’ assistant offensive line coach.
Taggart recommended jumping in on Maxwell Hiller, a 6-foot-6, 300-pound sophomore offensive tackle. Taggart, the quarterbacks coach at Wyndmoor (Pa.) La Salle College High School and personal coach of Zollers, is close friends with Vinnie Williams, the offensive coordinator at Coatesville (Pa.) Coatesville Area Senior, where Hiller plays.
“You guys got to get after him now,” Taggart said then. “I remember giving three or four of their coaches all of Max’s information.”
Abercrombie offered Hiller by late October and got him on campus to Missouri for the program’s Junior Day on Jan. 18. Hiller isn’t an under-the-radar talent, ranking No. 55 nationally in the Class of 2027, but the Tigers weren’t regulars in his home state until now.
“It shows that they have good recruiting to come out all this way from Missouri all the way to PA to recruit,” Hiller said in October. “So it’s definitely great to see.”
Abercrombie rejoined the Missouri staff ahead of the 2023 season after previously serving as an offensive graduate assistant in 2020-2021. He spent the prior two seasons as the offensive line coach and run game coordinator, for only 2022, at the Virginia Military Institute.
A native of Horsham, Pennsylvania, Abercrombie played and coached collegiately in his home state, and over the past decade and a half, those connections to Pennsylvania have bled into his ability to recruit the area.
“Jack Abercrombie, he’s definitely going to be an up-and-coming coach in the near future,” Taggart said.
Abercrombie knows two staffers at La Salle College High School well in offensive line coach Mark Schmidt and defensive line coach David Sowers. Schmidt and Sowers have built success at multiple stops in Pennsylvania, leaving fingerprints across the state in coaching and recruiting.
“Jack’s a big part,” Taggart said. “Not a lot of people understand these under-the-radar coaches, younger coaches, guys that are maybe lower-end assistances. They’re the ones that have a lot of the big-time relationships and connections.
“They do a lot of the dirty work behind the scenes, where they’re studying, watching all the film of all these guys, and they’re trying to find the diamonds in the rough. They’re trying to use their connections and everything, and it’s paying off big time for programs like Mizzou.”
The eastern half of Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, is where Missouri found Zollers as well as a trio of La Salle College High School players — Grayson McKeogh, Joey O’Brien and Gavin Sidwar.
Missouri offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kirby Moore traveled to La Salle College High School on Tuesday to workout Sidwar, a Class of 2026 three-star quarterback, who received an offer from the Tigers after a conversation with Moore.
Moore told Sidwar he wanted to host him for a one-on-one visit this spring, making the quarterback the focal point for the Tigers in whatever weekend they decide to schedule a trip.
Missouri made it a point of emphasis to make offers more personal with players, getting on high school campuses to talk with recruits. The Tigers did that with Sidwar and McKeogh, another player Taggart put on Abercrombie’s radar this past summer.
“The thing that I think separates Missouri, apart from a lot of other programs that would be interested in kids from Pennsylvania, is the actual town,” Taggart said. “The school is located in the middle of the town, so that was one of the things for Matt. Matt saying this, ‘It feels like I’m back in Royersford, Pennsylvania.’”
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A Pennsylvania middle school teacher has been placed on administrative leave, accused of calling a Muslim seventh grader a “terrorist.”
The incident is alleged to have taken place Jan. 16 at Central Dauphin Middle School in Harrisburg after the student asked the teacher to change seats, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group, said in a news release.
“I do not negotiate with terrorists,” the teacher told the student, according to CAIR, which described the student as Palestinian Lebanese American.
Adam Rahman, the boy’s father, said at a news conference Monday evening that his son is doing “OK” but that the incident will “always resonate in his head” and he’ll “wonder if the next teacher will say the same thing.”
“He felt like the room was spinning and he was the only one and there was nobody to help him,” Rahman said. “These teachers are supposed to be the mentors, the people who you look up to, and if that fails, there’s nothing.”
The Central Dauphin School District said it was aware of the allegations that the teacher “made a derogatory comment” to the student during an after-school program at the middle school. It did not identify the educator.
The district said the allegation incident goes against the district’s values and the policies set for staff members.
“Central Dauphin School District has zero tolerance for hateful and racist speech, and we have launched an internal investigation into this matter,” it said in a statement. “While we cannot comment publicly on personnel matters, the teacher involved in the alleged incident is on administrative leave pending our investigation.”
Rahman said that it is not the first time his family has experienced “red flags” in the school district but that this was the “tipping point.”
“When teachers say it, that’s when I have to go to the school and confront this,” he said.
Rahman called for more education in geopolitics in the district so students can “learn more about different backgrounds, especially in the Middle East.”
Community leaders demanded cultural sensitivity and anti-bias curriculum and training at Monday’s news conference.
In a statement, the Harrisburg Palestine Coalition said what it described as the teacher’s “deeply embedded racism” may stem partly from “exposure to misinformation and war propaganda by mainstream news coverage of Palestine.”
“Central Dauphin School District must do more to ensure that education on Palestine is correctly taught in its classrooms,” the coalition said.
In a statement, CAIR’s Philadelphia branch called the incident a “racist, anti-Palestinian verbal assault” that made the teacher “unfit to teach any students.”
The district’s superintendent, Eric Turman, said Sunday that there was no update on the investigation to share.
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