13-year-old ice cream parlor employee gets cheated out of paycheck by owners, cue petty revenge: 'I realized that they were gonna stiff all of us - again!'

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
May 21, 2025 4:00 PM EDT

Messing with any employee's pay says a lot about a person's business sensibility. It says even more about someone's warped sense of authority when the person whose paycheck they are withholding is a teenager. Perhaps the cheapskate owners of this ice cream parlor thought they could get away with continuing to delay this 13-year-old's paycheck simply because it was their first job and the kid might not know any better. However, kids know when something is unfair, and they tend to have an acute sense of right and wrong. It turns out that no amount of workplace naiveté could trick this kid into thinking this was standard practice. 

The best part about this story is that once the 13-year-old realized that it wasn't just her pay that was being withheld, she knew exactly how to retaliate and also managed to get justice for her coworkers in the process. Kudos to this smart and resourceful kid. When I was that age, I was too busy watching The Simpsons to advocate for fair working conditions.

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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • What's most amusing about this story is the fact that the 13-year-old did not need anyone else's assistance to advocate for what was morally correct. She knew justice was on her side, so when she notified her coworkers that they would be getting paid on time no matter what, she had zero sense of uncertainty, thereby demonstrating greater conviction than most adult employees ever could.

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    A few decades ago, my first "paycheck" job at 13 yo was running an ice cream parlor. Problem was, the owner would "delay" our pay, often
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    handing out paychecks and cautioning the employees (and me) not to cash them for a few days.
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    The guy and his wife were matching POS, and I knew the end was near for the business when the ice cream trucks and paper supply vendors didn't show one week.
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    Boss and wife were arguing about $$ in the back room and I realized that they were gonna stiff all of us - again - then go out of business.
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    So that Saturday night, when the ice cream parlor was hopping, I didn't put the $$$$$ in the safe.
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    One by one, as we got cash for the food, I'd call up the other employees and tell em to come in,
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    RIGHT NOW, to get their checks. Then I cashed them on the spot, using the money that was in the till.
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    Boss and the wife showed up on Sunday morning to a filthy shop, a safe full of checks that they wrote
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    and had no intention of ever paying out to a bunch of kids, and my resignation taped to the cash register.
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    enonimosu • 11h ago Justice Soft Served!
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    EADizzle 11h ago • 13-year-olds used to be so much smarter. There's 30-year- olds nowadays that couldn't hatch a plan this smooth.
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    Nichi1971 11h ago • You're the boss.
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    . sugarinth... 11h ago Here, take this. You've earned it. Well done!
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    Ball-tick_... 11h ago • Solid citizenry, right there. Good lad.
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    harrywwc 10h ago . revenge is sweet. revenge is best served cold. revenge is ice-cream :)
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    • 8h ago Edited 8h a Are you aware of the ancient Klingon proverb that tells us that revenge is a dish best served cold?
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    Substanti... • 8h ago Now THAT is some quick thinking sh.. you got them beyond good.. THAT
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    is justice.. it would take a special kind of scumbag to stiff kids working in an ice cream parlor.. karma at work..
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Tags

toxic-workplace teenagers work ice cream toxic-boss Horrible Bosses bad bosses ice cream truck toxic-work-environment
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