Waitress bumped into customer. Then 4 women beat her, stabbed her and took her cash, cops say

It started with the Applebee’s waitress bumping a customer on the knee. It ended with four women beating her mercilessly, a knife plunged into her arm and her tips from the night stolen, McDonough, Ga., police say.

Police said it was about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday when the waitress accidentally bumped into a customer’s leg at their table, Fox 5 reported.

“The waitress had brushed up against her leg,” McDonough police Maj. Kyle Helgerson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “There was an initial conversation about that.”

The waitress apologized and went back to retrieve more food, but bumped the customer again when she returned, police said.

“She came back a second time to serve them with food or drinks and brushed up against (the woman) again,” Helgerson told the paper. “That infuriated the suspect.”

It’s also when things suddenly turned violent, police said.

“One suspect grabs a knife and cuts her in the arm and the other suspect punches her,” McDonough detective TF Spangenberg told Fox 5.

Surveillance video from inside the restaurant, obtained by the station, shows the four women beating the waitress and shoving her against a partition. The group pummels the woman repeatedly as she tries to defend herself, and the commotion causes a table to fall over, crashing plates and silverware to the ground. Eventually, bystanders come and attempt to pull the women apart.

A customer yelled that the police were coming, after which police say the women calmly gathered their belongings and strolled out of the store, along with several hundred dollars in cash tips they allegedly took from the waitress’s apron during the fight, according to Fox 5.

Police say they also skipped out on their $62.57 food bill, according to the AJC.

The women drove off in a white Infiniti SUV, and police asked for help identifying both the car and any of the women involved in the violent brawl.

The waitress needed 15 stitches for a gash on her arm, and police said the women could face charges of aggravated assault, robbery, and more, Fox 5 reported.

Three of the women have since been arrested.

This story was originally published July 13, 2018 at 3:07 PM.