Police officers, emergency workers, and first responders risk their lives every day to keep our communities safe.
No matter how long it takes or what time it is, they always try to do their job, sometimes working long hours.
When these four Louisiana police officers finished a long and tiring shift, they decided to go to dinner at their local Outback Steakhouse.
What they didn’t know was the shock they would experience when they’d finished their meal.
According to Fox8, the incident happened at Outback Steakhouse in Slidell, Louisiana, where four on-duty local officers went to fuel up after work.
Everything went according to plan and everything was as usual.
Their meal was served as it should be and the night was nothing special – until the officers had their receipt and were hit with a huge surprise.
“They’re the sweetest guys,” said Zoë Rao, a waitress at the Outback Steakhouse where the officers ate “I enjoy waiting on them.”
However, what happened next attracted a lot of attention on social media.
Manager Arline Wood, who has worked at the business for 18 years, saw the officers come in and recognized them as regulars at the restaurant.
She and waitress Zoë Rao devised a plan together.
Manager Arline Wood and waitress Zoë Rao (Photo: Screenshot Fox8)
When it was time for the cops to pay the $67 bill, the officers couldn’t believe what was written on their receipt, but quickly realized it was on the house.
Not only did the server and manager pay their bill, but there was also a heartfelt note on the ticket thanking them for their service to the community.
It read, “Be safe!” written at the top, and further down it said, “Thank y’all for y’all’s service! Enjoy y’all’s meal on us!”
“They care about the community. They take care of everyone. They are just great guys. Our whole police force is great and these guys at night, I went to Zoë and I said, let’s take care of it,” Arline Wood said.
To show their gratitude, the officers reportedly left a hefty tip to show their own gratitude.
Later, the Slidell Police Department wanted to pay tribute to the two Outback Steakhouse employees and posted a photo of the receipt on their Facebook page.
The receipt left for the four police officers (Slidell Police Department)
It quickly went viral.
However, this is not at all what Arline Wood or Zoë Rao wanted. They did not want their wonderful act to be made public.
In fact, when asked about it later, Arline Wood said the publicity has been a little too much to handle.
“I got a phone call early in the morning and I was like what are you talking about?” Wood recalled.
“People called me and then we saw it on Facebook and then it’s on this one and that one and we didn’t do it for this publicity because Lord knows I don’t like all this publicity.”
But maybe there might be something good coming out of all the attention.
Arline and Zoë hope their simple act will encourage others to do something to thank those who put their lives on the line daily to protect us.
Slidell Police Department
Big kudos to these women for showing a great example of how to thank our law enforcement officers, who willingly go out and face evil every day so that we don’t have to!
I think this is the kind of thing we should be seeing more of, rather than hearing about police officers being denied service or otherwise being disrespected by people.
It’s acts of appreciation like this that remind them of why they do. Thank you to all the first responders – you are greatly appreciated!
