Influencer Fakes an Apple Pay Theft on a Red Baron Pizza Stocker for Clout. The Internet Sent the Stocker $679,000, and Red Baron Says Employee of the Month Nominations Are Closed.

A man was stocking Red Baron frozen pizzas at a Meijer in White Lake, Michigan, when a content creator walked up and asked him for the time. That was the setup.

When the worker pulled out his phone, the prankster played a sound like an Apple Pay payment and claimed he had just taken $10 from him, then thanked him for it. Later, near the front of the store, he walked past again and thanked him for "the $20."

The worker, known online as Walt Z., was not laughing. In the video he says he was supposed to be home an hour earlier, has to be up at 5 a.m. to stock ten more stores, has four kids at home and is struggling with his mortgage. "It's not a joke to me," he told the prankster. "My life is hard enough as it is."

The prankster posted the video anyway. Talk about reading the room: viewers sided with the worker almost instantly, the account behind the clip appears to have been deactivated, and a stranger started a GoFundMe titled "Support a harassed Red Baron worker." As of Oct. 31 it had raised more than $679,000 from over 19,000 donations, according to Fox News Digital.

Red Baron's parent company says the encounter actually happened in August, that it checked on him, and that he "remains a valued member of our team." Then the brand posted on X: "He's still here. He's got a fan club. Including us," with a graphic reading "Employee of the month nominations are closed. You know why."

The worker thanked donors on the fundraiser page and asked for privacy. So the prank did make somebody money. Just not the prankster.