My version of "what happened"

On October 23rd, 2009, Lehigh graduate student John Wagner, 24 and Moravian College senior Leslie Pope, 22, joined six of their friends at an establishment known as "Lehigh Pub" in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This group apparently received very poor service, and waited over an hour for their order of french fries and chicken fingers (some accounts claim it was chicken wings and salad) to be filled. They had trouble obtaining drink refills and service was so lacking that they had to set their own table and refill their own sodas, according to Wagner and Pope. Their waitress was too busy standing outside smoking cigarettes to wait on them, they claim.

When the check finally arrived, these Lehigh Pub patrons found that in addition to charges of $73.87 for food, beverages and tax, a gratuity of $16.35 appeared on the bill. Wagner and Pope complained to the bartender about their unsatisfactory experience at this establishment. However, they paid the Lehigh Pub bartender $73.87 for the food and drink and tax, which he accepted, and declined to pay the additional gratuity of $16.35. The bartender accepted the $73.87, but then called the Bethlehem Police Department. The Bethlehem Police arrested Wagner and Pope for theft and lead them away in handcuffs. Wagner and Pope were charged and await an appearance in court (some accounts state that they are still waiting for a court date, and others report that they will go to court in December of 2009) in front of Judge Nancy Matos Gonzalez.

Reportedly, Lehigh Pub has a policy that a charge of 18% will be added to the bills of all parties of six or more. However, $16.35 is more than 22.13% of $73.87, which of course is the post-tax amount of the bill. Pennsylvania has a 6% sales tax on restaurant meals, and therefore the charge before tax was about $69.69. The gratuity of $16.35 imposed represents in excess of 23.46% of the meal cost of roughly $69.69, which is substantially more than 18%, so there is an inconsistency or an error somewhere. The charge of $16.35 is about 18% of $90.83.

The owner of the Lehigh Pub claims that a portion of the party's food and drink charges were "comped", that is, the bill was substantially reduced, apparently in recognition of the very poor or even nonexistent service the group received. Wagner and Pope state that this is incorrect, and claim that they paid the full bill except for the added gratuity charge of $16.35.

Stuart Bedics, Bethlehem Deputy Police Commissioner, whose appointment as Bethlehem Police Commissioner was announced November 13, 2009 by Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan, has stated that "Obviously we would have liked for the patron and the retail establishment to have worked this out without getting the police involved". However, the television news clips report that the police charged the couple with theft because the gratuity was part of the actual bill, and that Bedics doubts that these charges will hold up in court.

Obviously cowed by this demonstration of the power of the police and city government in enforcing even the unfair charges and policies of local business owners, Pope has stated in interviews that in the future she would just pay whatever bill she was presented with, no matter what.

This matter received media and internet attention starting about mid-November, 2009. Soon after, I received personal communications that allege the police no longer want to prosecute Wagner and Pope since the $16.35 fee (clearly far in excess of 18%) was listed as a "gratuity", rather than a service charge (does this change of heart of the police have anything to do with the publicity?). Also, the police representative stated that if Lehigh Pub had listed the $16.35 as a "service charge" instead of a "gratuity", Wagner and Pope would definitely be prosecuted. I guess this is apparently true even if the party that had this service charge levied on them had obtained substandard service, or even no service at all. It is interesting to me that the police were willing to arrest Wagner and Pope on October 23, 2009 on charges of theft, and then planned to charge them until this started to get media attention more than 3 weeks later, at which time they started to sing a different tune.

It has been reported that one of the owners of Lehigh Pub has stated that the story that has appeared in the media is incomplete. No further details are yet available.

On November 25, 2009, after plenty of media attention, the police announced they were dropping the charges. Wagner and Pope are scheduled to appear on CNN to discuss this episode on December 1, 2009.

At least several hundred, and probably several thousand reviews of the Lehigh Pub after this episode was publicized have been removed from Yelp! and rateitall.com and Metromix Lehigh Valley and other internet rating sites.

Interestingly Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan is contemplating a run for the Congress of the United States based on his allegedly superior management of the Bethlehem City Government (including of course, its police department) and his good judgement. When contacted about this issue, Callahan's campaign office has made no comment after several days.







Caveat:

This narrative is based on information I have culled from various news sources. It should be not be regarded as a definitive account; the actual facts might be different than what appears here.