Cash taken from tip jar at Olympia drive-in. The community responded, owner says

Cash was recently stolen from a tip jar at Eastside Big Tom, a popular drive-in burger joint, but the story has a happy ending, the owner said on social media.

On Friday, a man walked past the tip jar — and glanced in the direction of it as he did — and then returned to take the cash from it and run away, according to a video shared by owner Michael Fritsch on Instagram.

“We made it work so well that the kids tip jar out front was so full that the person in this video walked by, noticed it, walked to 4th Avenue, pulled up his ski mask and then ran back by and stole all of the money out of it,” he said in his post.

But in a follow-up post, Fritsch said the community responded and replenished that tip jar.

“This community is amazing!,” he wrote in his follow-up post. “I mentioned the individual that stole the tips from my staff yesterday and y’all showed up and restored the staff’s faith in humanity by replacing them a couple of times over.

“You didn’t have to do that, but you did it anyway. I can’t thank you enough for that.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2025 at 11:37 AM.