A server at Jess’ Lunch in downtown Harrisonburg, Virginia didn’t get a tip from two customers on 15 August 2016.

To not get a tip is relatively normal, said server Sadie Karina Elledge, 18. What wasn’t normal was what one of the customers reportedly wrote to her on the receipt: “We only tip citizens”:

“It shouldn’t even matter, I just feel like it’s rude and disrespectful. I’ve never met, I’ve never done anything to them,” Elledge said. It wasn’t just disrespectful, but she says it is just plain wrong. “I was born here but I’m Mexican and Honduran,” said Elledge. Adding another layer to her disbelief, Elledge says the woman herself had an accent. Jess’ Lunch is an immigrant-created and owned business. Here’s what Elledge’s boss had to say about the note. “Coward is the word to describe what they did. I have worse words to use,” said Angeliki Floros, “But let’s go with coward.”

The receipt infuriated her grandfather, who posted a photograph of it to Facebook that quickly became international news:





The couple — who were caught writing the message on a security camera — have now been banned from the restaurant until they apologize.