I remember vividly my worst day at work. It was at the height of COVID and I was working in a hospital. My normal assigned unit was closed to be ICU overflow (we never saw a single patient) and we were floated. I worked weekends, three 12-hour shifts. Some weeks, I was on a different unit each day. No continuity of patient care, no predictability. Just work.
On this one particular day, I had six COVID patients who were all in isolation which meant layers of PPE. I also had patients with complex medications that required hourly checks. By the end of my 12-hour shift, I was sweaty, tired. I hadn't eaten a thing or used the bathroom. So we did handoff report in the hallway, at the door, rather than spending another hour after my shift donning PPE and going through handoff.
My manager — who spent the entire shift in his office — scolded us. And I lost it. I told him I hadn't gone to the bathroom, I hadn't taken a lunch break, I had been on my feet for hours while he sat in his office. If he wanted us to do handoff, it was his job as our manager to make sure we got to do basic things like go to the bathroom and eat a sandwich.
He didn't like it, and my colleagues thought I was going to get fired.
I didn't care. I'd had enough. What I'm grateful for is no one had a camera in my face while this happened.
So when I saw this video of a Red Baron employee get fed up with some clout-chasing social media influencer, I got it. And so did a lot of other good people who get up every day and grind just to make ends meet, only to be mocked, harassed, and belittled by people for clicks.
‘MY LIFE IS HARD AS IT IS, I DON’T NEED THIS CRAP!’ — Grocery store worker SNAPS at clout-chasing kids
— RT (@RT_com) October 28, 2026
Teens tried to apologize to the man with four kids and a mortgage, but it didn’t look sincere to him pic.twitter.com/5fl7NWrZdA
The scam here is the guy played the audio of an Apple Pay transaction and told this man he stole $10 or $20 from him. It's a prank, but a very unfunny one. $20 is gas money, a lunch, a kid's school field trip.
"My life is hard enough as it is," the man says. "Okay? I don't need this crap. I got kids at home that went to bed without me right now and I was supposed to be at home an hour ago, and I'm still out here working. And I gotta get up at five in the morning and do ten 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!"
This interaction is where we are in miniature.
— WileECoyote (@WileECitizen) October 29, 2026
This guy is going through it like a lot of us. Still grinding. Smile on his face, making the best of it. Then, on top of it all, is forced to deal with the spirit of the age and confront it.
"The spirit of the age" is a great turn of phrase. And that's exactly what it is — an entitlement mentality that half the country professes that thinks taking money from hard-working Americans is a joke.
Dad of 6 here (and a significant purchaser of frozen pizzas.) This guy is all of us.
— Joe Weil (@RealJoeWeil) October 29, 2026
If I see public promotion of this solid man by @redbaronpizza I will become major patron & booster.
Anything less: full boycott. Will die on this hill. https://t.co/H2q5k4ECHE
A GoFundMe was started for this guy, and as of Thursday night, it raised more than $345,000. The campaign also identifies the man as "Walt Z."
UPDATE: A GoFundMe for the Red Baron worker seen in the supermarket prank showed $331,264 raised Oct. 29 at 6:34 p.m. ET. Red Baron Pizza wrote: “He’s still here. He’s got a fan club. Including us.” We have not confirmed whether he has received the funds. pic.twitter.com/1s2LwyuT35
— Wick Gone Wild (@WickGoneWILD) October 29, 2026
And Red Baron, to its credit, has said Walt is their employee of the month.
He’s still here. He’s got a fan club.
— Red Baron Pizza (@redbaronpizza) October 29, 2026
Including us. pic.twitter.com/7oppfnDUfx
It's nice to finally see a company that stands by its employees, especially one who was harassed and abused the way Walt was. His crash out (as the kids say) was absolutely justifiable, and necessary. Because at the end of the day, Walt wants what we all want: to be able to do our job, earn a living, and spend time with the people we love.
And there are so many obstacles in the way of that sometimes, on a good day, that the last thing we need is someone pretending to steal our hard-earned money for social media views.
