Greedy WAPA worker caught on camera stealing tip jar from Subway… but left $10 tip as she fled with the loot

CHRISTIANSTED — A hungry Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority employee traveled the thousands of feet from her base at the Sunny Isle Shopping Center Annex to the Sunny Isle Shopping Center Food Court.

The WAPA employee was starved after a hard morning of work, so she ordered lunch at the Subway Restaurant, paid – and left a $10 tip as she was leaving.

Sounds like a great customer, right?

The only problem is that this customer also ran out of the store carrying the Subway tip jar stuffed with cash – intended for SUBWAY’s hard-working employees.

Is that called “self-tipping?”

Well, the fine folks at the Virgin Islands Police Department are currently working on the appropriate charges for the accused individual – whose alleged thievery was captured on video surveillance cameras earlier this week.

Hope “the suspect” smiled for the camera.

The prosecutors at the Virgin Islands Department of Justice (VIDOJ) should have an open and shut case with this one!

Maybe WAPA’s new motto should be: “Powering our islands … one tip at a time!

Meanwhile, an avid reader of the Virgin Islands Free Press made this comment on social media today.

“Not such an ‘open and shut case,” Carlos McGregor said on St. Croix. “Remember it’s the VI Dept. of Justice prosecuting the case .. and they are currently on a losing streak. The lady might just be an exemplary employee, taking that money back to WAPA to pay Subway’s electrical bill.”

Some of the 33 comments made on Facebook as of 5:00 p.m. AST.

John F. McCarthy is a veteran journalist in the Caribbean, writing from the "Decision Space" where survival meets the surreal. His reporting steel was tempered by a lineage of legendary editors and broadcasters, including Ed Wynn Brant (The Bomb), Owen Eschenroder (Ann Arbor News), Lynelle Emanuel (BVI Beacon), and Charles Thanas (WSVI-TV). Alongside longtime colleague Kenneth C. "Casey" Clark, McCarthy has navigated the front lines of the territory’s history—from the 1997 volcanic "snow" to every major hurricane since Hugo. Known for leaning out of doorless helicopters to capture the "money shot," McCarthy now edits the V.I. Free Press, providing the essential link between the island's colonial past and its SpaceX future.