Innocent tea urns are being stolen from Whataburger restaurants in new trend

"Whataburger screwed up our order twice and took a half hour so we took the sweet tea," Twitter user @doyle2405 posted. "Whataburger screwed up our order twice and took a half hour so we took the sweet tea," Twitter user @doyle2405 posted. Photo: Mendoza, Madalyn S, Twitter.com Photo: Mendoza, Madalyn S, Twitter.com Image 1 of / 92 Caption Close Innocent tea urns are being stolen from Whataburger restaurants in new trend 1 / 92 Back to Gallery

Some Texans have fallen into the bad habit of taking table tents from Whataburger as souvenirs but a new trend of taking Whataburger tea urns has started and the restaurant is shaming alleged offenders online.

It’s unclear who started stealing the tea containers first, but thanks to the restaurant’s presence on Twitter, a few of the crooks have been identified (some outed themselves.)

The motive for the crime is also muddy. Perhaps burger aficionados have become so enamored by by the brand that having a few gallons of it's sweet tea at home is essential. While others see taking the urns as a way to strike back at the restaurant like a disgruntled lover.

Twitter user and tea thief, Jacob (or @doyle2405), made the mistake of naming Whataburger in his Tweet with a photo of a sweet tea urn captioned “Whataburger screwed up our order twice and took a half hour so we took the sweet tea,” easily grabbing the restaurant’s attention.

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The social media team for the restaurant disapprovingly replied “smh” to Jacob, short for "shaking my head.” His incriminating photo was screenshot and posted by Whataburger to their Twitter page, for their 400,000 followers to see. As of Monday morning, the original photo had racked up 19,000 retweets and 30,000 favorites.

Some tweeters were equally offended by the pictures of the horrendous crime, because disrespecting their beloved chain goes against fan's core values. Unfortunately, the tweets switched on a lightbulb in the mischievous minds of others and Jacob soon earned followers – both online and in real life.

Since the photos went viral, a few more tea urns have ended up in the hands of people probably looking to cash in on their few moments of Twitter fame, but the usual lighthearted-Tweeting restaurant does not seem to be amused.

“To the people stealing our Tea Urns-This is why you can’t have nice things. #YallChildish,” was posted to the Whataburger Twitter account.

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They’re also putting their foot down.

“Please return our urns so we don’t have to take this all more seriously,” the account warned another tea urn thief.

Whataburger Corporate Communications released a statement to the Express-News, saying "we took a lighthearted approach with the first customer who took our tea urn, but since then a few more tea urns have been stolen. We hope this trend is over because some people have taken it too far and it’s affecting other customers who love our tea. Our tea urns need to stay in the restaurants.”

Whataburger is not the only restaurant targeted. According to News Times, a county in Georgia arrested two teens for stealing a Subway restaurant's tea dispenser. Like the Whataburger tea thieves, the teens chronicled their antics on Twitter.

mmendoza@mysa.com

Twitter: @MaddySkye