Moment hardworking Red Baron employee shames troll who pulled cruel prank while he stocked shelves… as he gets last laugh with $300,000 fundraiser
Supporters have rallied together to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to a hardworking father-of-four who was the subject of a cruel prank captured on video.
A clip of the prank, originally posted in August on a now-deleted page, recently went viral after it was reposted across social media platforms.
The video shows a Red Baron employee, later identified in an online fundraiser as Walt Z, stocking shelves at a Michigan grocery store when the person recording approaches and asks for the time.
When the worker took out his phone to check the time, the person recording brought out his own phone and played the Apple Pay chime, pretending to take money from the man.
‘Dude, thank you, bro. I just took $10,’ the prankster said.
Walt initially responded calmly and said, ‘Don’t mess with me right now,’ but the person recording continued prodding and provoking him to get a reaction.
Once the worker began getting upset, the prankster told him to calm down and repeated: ‘It’s just a joke.’
But Walt replied: ‘It’s not a joke to me… My life is hard enough as it is.’ His voice began trembling as he continued: ‘I got kids at home that went to bed without me. I was supposed to be at home an hour ago, and I’m still out here working!’
A Red Baron employee and father of four was the subject of a cruel prank by an attention-hungry Instagrammer, whose video of the prank went viral and faced backlash
The prankster played an Apple Pay chime near the employee’s phone and pretended to take $10, then continued prodding the man to get a reaction
The worker then shouted: ‘And I gotta get up at five in the morning and do 10 more stores! So this is not a joke to me!’
‘And now I’m probably gonna get kicked out of the store because of you,’ he then said before the person recording replied: ‘Okay, I’m sorry.’
‘No, you’re not sorry because you’ve got a smug look on your face,’ Walt said. ‘You’re probably making money off this! I can’t even pay my goddamn mortgage, and I got four kids at home!’
People online overwhelmingly responded with sympathy for the hardworking father and called out the prankster, with many calling him a ‘wannabe influencer’ and a ‘punk.’
One viewer named Luke Oakenshield was moved enough to create a fundraiser for Walt on Tuesday, even though he did not know the man.
‘This fundraiser is about standing up for a working person who is busting their butt and should not have to fear losing stability because someone wanted content and clicks,’ Oakenshield wrote on the fundraising page.
‘I do not know the worker personally and am actively searching for his contact information so I can make sure he receives the funds directly,’ he added.
In an update posted on Wednesday, Oakenshield said the employee was found. ‘Walt Z out of Michigan sends a heartfelt thankyou, and is absolutely blown away by how much people have cared over this,’ the organizer wrote.
The worker initially responded calmly, but later became upset and said he was working late and his kids had to go to bed without him
A fundraiser for the worker, identified as Walt Z, has raised more than $330,000 from sympathetic viewers online
‘They are requesting privacy, and GoFundMe is taking the lead in transferring all of this to him.’
As of Thursday evening, the fundraiser has garnered more than $330,000 from more than 8,500 people.
A spokesperson for Red Baron’s parent company, CJ Schwan’s, told the New York Post: ‘We are aware of the video circulating on social media involving one of our Direct Store Delivery employees during an incident that occurred in August.
‘Following the incident, we connected directly with our team member to check on his well-being, and we continue to offer our support. We are pleased to share that he is doing well and remains a valued member of our team.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to CJ Shwan’s for additional comment and information about Walt and his reaction to the support he received.
