You say to-may-toe and I say to-mah-toe, and in the case of a waitress suing law enforcement, she says $12,000 is a miraculous tip and they say it’s drug money. Oh, and there is no tomato involved. So who’s right? After all, says the waitress, she tried to return the tip to the customer and was told to keep it. All’s fair in the food industry, after all.

The police don’t see it that way for the Minnesota waitress and mother of five. She says she was looking for a miracle to help with financial troubles, reports ABC News, and is suing in district court to get back what she sees as rightfully hers.

Here’s how it all went down: Stacy was working at a Fryn’ Pan, when, her attorney says, a woman left a box from another restaurant on her table. She went out to the customer’s car and tried to give it back to her, but the woman said “No, I am good, you keep it,” says the lawsuit.

So Stacy kept the box, even though she thought it strange. When she opened it, she found bundles of cash wrapped in rubber bands.

“Even though I desperately needed the money as my husband and I have five children, I feel I did the right thing by calling” the police she said in the lawsuit.

Of course when the cops showed up, they seized the money and told Stacy she could have it after 60 days if it hadn’t been claimed by anyone else. Then she was told 90 days. Then, after three months, she was told it was being held as “drug money” and she’d just get $1,000 as a reward.

Cops say when they got the money, they started to investigate where it came from, and say it emanated a “strong odor of marijuana.” So it must be drug money, they argue, as it was at one point, in the vicinity of drugs.

The best argument comes from a line cook at the Fryn’ Pan, quoted in the article as part of an affidavit.

“I know the smell of marijuana,” he said. “I can also assure you that there was no smell of marijuana on the bills or coming from the box.”

Case closed! No drugs in the box, give her the dough.

*Thanks for the tip, Harper!

Minnesota Waitress Sues After Police Seize $12,000 ‘Tip’ [ABC News]

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