Amy’s Baking Company Owners Claim Waitress Admitted To ‘Stealing’ Tips From Them, Say She’s Lucky They Won’t Sue

Amy’s Baking Company owners Amy and Samy Bouzaglo have generously let their former waitress escape prosecution. The infamous Arizona-based restaurateurs allegedly chose not to sue Miranda even after she “stole” from them the tips that diners have given her.

The Bouzaglos have apparently required their staff to sign an employee contract, which specifically states that all servers aren’t allowed to receive tips. The tips that diners leave should be given to the Bouzaglos because the servers are already paid more than the hourly standard.

The contract, which was obtained by RadarOnline.com, has 19 more provisions, some of which were pretty normal, but the others look unreasonable. It was undated, but since the rule about the tips is included, it is assumed that it was effective before the Bouzaglos appeared on Kitchen Nightmares.

Related:
Crazy Employee Contract Of Amy’s Baking Company Revealed

On the show, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay was shocked to learn from Miranda, his server on that day, that the ABC employees didn’t get tips because the owners required them to surrender however much they got from customers.

It was unheard of in the U.S., where tipping is the norm, and waiters and servers pocket the tips customers leave for them.

A week after the Amy’s Baking Company episode was aired in May, Miranda has spoken up. She told Mathew Blades of Mix 96.9 radio station how Samy accused her of stealing from them and how Amy threatened to call the police on her and told security that she was harassing them.

Surprisingly, though, she said that she was on good terms with Amy, who was seen as aggressive and eccentric in the show, but had a very difficult working relationship with Samy.

“One of our regulars came in, his personal friend left me my tip under the table, which people have been doing for the last few days after the show because they realised I wasn’t getting tips,” she said.

“So I was taking them, of course, because legally that’s my money, and he [Samy] accused me of taking it, stealing his money, that’s what he said to me. He came to me like in my face, yelling at me, ‘Give me my money, give me my money!’

“And I just looked at him in anger and told him, ‘It’s not your money.' I yelled at him and screamed at him,” Miranda said. “It was five dollars. Five dollars and he made a huge scene about it like it’s the end of the world. So I threw it at him and I walked out. And that’s the end of it.”

When the host asked if the Bouzaglos mailed her her last pay check, Miranda laughed, “Oh, it gets better!”

“I went back to receive my pay check and Amy decided she wasn’t going to give it to me. And I had her on record, too. So she made a huge scene about that and she told me she was calling the police and she’s getting me arrested. So I told her I’d wait for the cops outside. And I did.

“And she called security and told them I was harassing her. [I] was standing on her property and harassing her so I was asked to leave. And that’s how it ended.”

She got her last payment, though. Samy told her the next day to get her pay check, which was for USD300, but they never paid her the amount that she was truly supposed to receive.

Listen to her full interview:

Now, a source told RadarOnline.com that Miranda’s interview proves that she intentionally stole the tips from Amy and Samy.

Miranda signed the mentioned employee contract when she was hired, which means that she understood that she should surrender all the tips she would receive.

“Samy and Amy did nothing wrong, because while they took the servers tips, they also paid them a much higher hourly wage than most servers. And Miranda signed that agreement so the Bouzaglos just want everyone to know how dishonest she is,” the insider said.

“Legally they have the option to prosecute her, but they’ve chosen not to,” the source continued, as if saying that the Bouzaglos had been generous with Miranda’s fate.

“Miranda is lucky that Amy and Samy aren’t vengeful and don’t feel the need to prosecute her. It’s clear she took advantage of them while she worked there.”

Although denying servers tips seemed selfish on the owners’ part, the insider defended their actions, saying, “The reason they paid hourly was so that their staff would make a steady income no matter how dead the restaurant was. The tips collected went to paying the busers hourly.”