Fundraiser for Red Baron Employee Accosted by Prankster Raises $100K - Newsweek

A fundraiser for a Red Baron employee who was accosted by a TikTok prankster while at work has raised more than $100,000.

In a video that has gone viral and been reshared across multiple social media platforms, the man, named online only as Walt Z, was approached by someone who pretended to steal money from him.

The person filming the video held out his phone to the employee’s phone, and the Apple Pay transaction sound played. From the perspective of the viewer, it’s clear a pre-recorded sound was being played, but it wasn’t clear for the employee.

“Thank you, bro, I just took $10,” the person filming said.

The employee did not take it as a joke and, after initially responding calmly, is seen losing his temper at the end of the video.

When told by the streamer that the incident was “just a joke,” the employee responded, “It’s not a joke to me, OK? My life is hard enough as it is.”

The GoFundMe was organized after the ensuing attention on social media. It was organized by a man named Luke Oakenshield, who clarified in the fundraiser description that he did not know the employee.

“This fundraiser is about standing up for a working person who is busting their butt and should not have to fear losing stability because someone wanted content and clicks,” Oakenshield wrote in the description.

Newsweek has contacted Oakenshield for comment via GoFundMe, and CJ Schwan's, Red Baron's parent company, outside of normal working hours.

Some videos have the Instagram watermark @thea.ctiveworld on it, but the account appears to have since been deleted. It does not appear on the TikTok page associated with the handle, with that account previously showing other pranks on retail workers that have since been deleted. It's not clear if those accounts are where the original video was posted.

When the video begins, the person filming asks the employee what time it is, before proceeding to play the money trick on him.

“Don’t mess with me right now, OK?” the employee said in response.

The employee calmly responded at first and, after asking if he was being recorded, walked away and said that he would report the person.

Then, as the person filming leaves the store, he says to the employee: “Thank you for the $20.”

A person next to the person filming tells him: “You need to stop.”

The employee then loses his temper and begins shouting.

“This is not a joke to me,” he said. “I’ve got kids at home that went to bed without me right now. I was supposed to be at home an hour ago, but I’m still out here working. Now I’m probably gonna get kicked out of the store because of you. Not funny.”

The person filming said that he was sorry, and the employee replied: “You’re not sorry, because you’ve got a smug look on your face. And you’re probably making money off of this. And I can’t even pay my goddamn mortgage. And I’ve got four kids at home.”

After that, the people filming said that they would leave.

Prank videos are nothing new and have long been a stalwart of content on social media platforms. But this time, the internet wasn’t laughing.

There was widespread criticism in response to the video, and a widespread sense that the actions captured in the video were unkind.

“This broke me,” Sarah Fields, a Republican precinct chair based in Texas, wrote in a post viewed 3.5 million times.

The account AmericanPapaBear wrote in a post on X viewed 1.9 million times: “Leave the working man alone. He's got enough on his plate.”

The account @surajit_ghost2 also weighed in with a post viewed nearly 20,000 times and questioned if this is the “end of prank culture on the internet,” and said the video should be a “wake-up call.”

In the midst of the outrage, though, was a mobilization to support the Red Baron employee.

Public figures, including the conservative commentator Benny Johnson and Collin Rugg, shared the GoFundMe fundraiser for Walt Z and encourage donations.

His story resonated with many people. As the U.S. continues to grapple a high cost of living and many people struggle to get by, there have been a number of instances in which fundraisers for people who are struggling have gone viral.

For example, earlier this year, more than a half-million dollars was raised for an elderly DoorDash driver who came out of retirement after his wife lost her job and joined the service in a bid to try and supplement his family’s income. Similar, the family of the late actor James Van Der Beek received an outpouring of financial support after his death at age 48 on February 11.

GoFundMe’s annual review in 2025 showed that over the course of that year, the number of Americans fundraising to cope with the cost of rent, groceries and other essentials under the “essential expense” category rose 20 percent.

As for what’s next for Walt Z, a recently shared post on the Reddit thread r/RedBaronWorker, which was set up to try to find the worker, said that he and his family “are requesting privacy at this time.” It added that they are “blown away” by what is happening.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Dave Siminoff.