Yes, that New Jersey server may have faked the note and the refusal to tip, many news outlets are reporting. Salon reported this morning:
…earlier this week, Morales’ story took a twist — when the family she said stiffed her contacted NBC News to dispute her claim. The husband and wife produced their copy of the receipt, which showed an $18 tip, and what they say is their Visa statement, which likewise reflects the larger total. They also say the alleged snarking on Morales’ appearance went down differently – they say they’d been told their server would be “Dan,” and when Morales appeared, they said, “Whoa, you’re not Dan.” The husband told NBC he didn’t even vote for Chris Christie because Christie doesn’t support marriage equality. “Never would a message like that come from us,” he says.
Oops.
*sigh*
The reaction to this will not be good…
Why do waiters do this? Is there a financial reward and, also, don’t they imagine that the truth will come out?
Now, I’ve only heard of 2 situations like this but they’ve both been proven to be false. What’s up?
sambarge @2, such proof as exists (I refer to the linked article) relies on NBC claiming they have sighted “… a Visa bill, which appears to indicate their card was charged for the meal plus the tip, for a total of $111.55.”
So… very strong evidence, but not actually proof, for mine.
(As an aside, “appears to indicate”? That’s really covering one’s bets!)
Why do people do this?
Infuriating doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Whether those who endure gay-hating, are sexually harassed, raped, or endure other crimes, it’s hard enough for them to be believed when they’re telling the truth. There are plenty of scumbags willing to harass, mock, ignore and victimize people a second time.
And as we’ve seen with MRA filth, when fake accusations occur, the scumbags try to claim the fakes are more numerous than they are, or even claim the fakes make up most of the cases. It only takes one in a thousand for filth to treat it like it’s one in ten.
Having seen the alleged credit card statement, I can tell you that anyone could whip that up in 5 minutes with Word.
The only evidence good enough for me to think she lied is a signed confession.
WMDKitty @6:
There are three problems with your desired level of evidence:
1. You can whip up a fake signed confession even faster than a fake bank statement.
2. Your level of evidence means that a stubborn liar will never be caught out.
3. Even if we do receive a genuine, verifiable signed confession, the history of law enforcement shows that this is not good evidence of guilt (in about ⅓ of false convictions in the US, the accused had signed a confession).
To me, the crucial evidence is the bank statement. If the family are prepared to have their bank issue a statement directly to an independent scrutineer, then we will have the appropriate evidence. If the amount billed included a tip, then the family were almost certainly set up (not necessarily by Morales).
@WMDKitty, I agree the evidence is not at all conclusive at the moment. The restaurant are standing by her and they presumably have the till receipts and records of what was charged. The statement produced by the couple was massively redacted and the only thing I could see in the TV report was a sheaf of paper not the original statement. So looked to be no more than a printout, you don’t need MS Word to fake that, just edit some text in HTML. It didn’t even have the totals so pretty dodgy evidence. The till receipt with their tip written on it was their copy, don’t know why they’d even write it on their copy as well as the restaurant one. Maybe there is a good reason, but either way it is no evidence at all as they wrote it in and could easily have done after the fact.
Now some people are saying there is no motive for them coming forward and risking looking bad. I disagree as this couple are seemingly xtian bigots who are against gay marriage. This story has been used to make xtians like them look bad, so why wouldn’t they undermine it. Worst that can happen is that the restaurant comes out with their receipts, then its the couple’s word against them. They can argue that their bank statements are private and they have produced a copy to create a stand off and enough doubt that no one who has any motivation will believe the waitress. New occurrences of this bad tipping will be cast into doubt, as are old ones. Seems quite a win from their perspective — especially if it is true (Still possible) and they wrote that horrible sentiment on the receipt.
I think we cannot be sure either way at the moment, but the waitress has a lot more to lose so I’ll support her until there is compelling evidence the other way. For me the restaurant receipts backing up the couples account would be enough. Doubtful both would be lying and then we are only left with very unlikely third party involvement – sneaky employees setting her up etc.
They’d have to be crazy to fake credit card statements and receipts knowing the restaurant have their own records.
Not saying that can’t happen but assuming it has just because our sympathies lie elsewhere shows tribalism rather than a commitment to the truth.
@WMDKitty #6:
What about the other things mentioned in the article, where she’s supposedly lied about brain cancer, as well as serving in Iraq / Afghanistan? Nothing more than circumstantial evidence true, but it does establish a pattern.
There’s also the possibility that someone else at the restaurant had a beef against the waitress and doctored the receipt before she saw it. Not every restaurant has the waitstaff take care of the money; some have separate cashiers that the customers go straight to.
oolon,
The big problem with your xtian bigot argument is that the family have said that they voted against Christie for opposing gay marriage and although I can imagine a bigot lying about a lot of things, it seems odd to make that particular lie if they hate gays enough to write that receipt note.
sqlrob:
The current evidence that Morales has a history of lying seems to be this line from the Salon article:
In other words, unsourced rumour repeated by the journalist without bothering to establish its veracity, not even checking if those individuals really do know Morales. I wouldn’t accept that as evidence to straighten my necktie.
Seems as though, Dayna, may be an habitual liar. According to the media she told coworkers at a day care centre that Hurricane Sandy had wrecked her home, and put a boat in her living room, apparently not thinking they would stop by to help, and see that only the front door had been slightly damaged.