Starbucks barista, who gets shamed by woman for not serving her without mask, earns $60K as tip in return

One Amber Lynn Gilles’ viral post on Facebook, about a staff at San Diego Starbucks, Lenin Gutierrez, in a bid to shame the barista for following coronavirus safety norms, boomeranged on her hard when the barista received about $60,000 in tips from people as a mark of support.

“Meet Lenen (sic) from Starbucks who refused to serve me cause I’m not wearing a mask. Next time I will wait for cops and bring a medical exemption,” her post read.

The post went viral with more than 133,000 comments and 49,000 shares before it was taken down Friday.

According to media reports, thousands of people joined in to support Lenin saying that the Californian state law now requires everyone to wear masks in public spaces.

Later, a GoFundMe page was set up to tip the 24-year-old barista, whom Gilles attempted to shame. Currently, the fundraiser has received over $60,000 as tip from over 3,000 people, for the barista, according to many, “was only doing his job.”

The Independent reported that shortly after the Facebook post by Gilles, Gutierrez said in a video response, “I was going to show her the paper showing that we’ve been requiring face masks but we can still help, but before I could say anything she flipped me off and she said, ‘No, I don’t need one’.”

He added, “She started cursing up a storm, she started calling people sheep and she left, and within a few minutes she came back and she asked for my name.”

Later, thanking people for the tips, he said: "I want to remind everyone to be kind to one another and to love each other."

In another post on her Facebook page, Gilles wrote, “I am not scarred or bothered by your ignorant fraud a**’s, not so sorry you losers got nothing better to do. thanks for the ratings you all act like the terrorist organization you are.”

One top comment on this post reads, “You do realize the only one who is benefiting from these “so called ratings,” is Lenen!! He has almost 10,000 dollars in tips!!! ” (sic)

Matt Cowan, the man who decided to start a virtual tip jar on GoFundMe after stumbling upon the post on Facebook, called the donation page, “Tips for Lenin Standing Up To A San Diego Karen.”

In its description, Cowan wrote, “Raising money for Lenin for his honorable effort standing his ground when faced with a Karen in the wild.”

In an interview with KNSD-TV, Gilles said, “I was denied and discriminated against. I didn’t harass anyone, I called him out.”

San Diego County had issued a notice on May 1, 202 requiring residents to wear face-cover in most public settings, in view of the ongoing pandemic. The county also mandated wearing masks when shopping in a store or picking up food at a restaurant.

In response, A Starbucks spokesperson told the media that the company is adhering to COVID-19 guidelines.

“We want everyone to feel welcome in our stores. We respectfully request customers follow social distancing and safety protocols recommended by public health officials, including wearing a facial covering when visiting our stores,” the spokesperson added.