Bartender's tip leads to arrest in Key West buoy burning [View all]

Source: Associated Press

Bartender’s tip leads to arrest in Key West buoy burning

January 11, 2022

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) — Always remember to tip your server, if you know what’s good for you.

A tourist made a big impression in a Key West bar by ordering drinks three times on New Year’s Eve without leaving a tip. That enabled the staff to easily track him down after police released webcam video showing vandals setting fire to a Christmas tree.

The arson caused more than $5,000 in damage to the city’s landmark buoy marking the southernmost point in the United States, and sent the island’s “coconut telegraph” gossip chain into high alert, the Miami Herald reported Tuesday.

Like other locals across the city, bartender Cameron Briody watched the video, and recognized the 21-year-old man who had stiffed him at Irish Kevin’s on Key West’s famous Duval Street. “I knew immediately that I had served him and that he had used a card, so his name would be on the slips,” Briody told the Herald.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/arrests-united-states-key-west-arson-0a51533b5f0f77b05861ba778b0c585e


In this photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, visitors gather at the Southernmost Point marker Friday, Jan. 7, 2022, in Key West, Fla. City of Key West Public Works employees completed restoration of the iconic marker late Thursday, after it was scorched early New Year's Day when two men burned a Christmas tree next to it. Both men were served warrants and charged with criminal mischief with damages over $1,000. The Southernmost Point marker is one of the most popular landmarks in the Florida Keys. (Rob O'Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau via AP)