My knee bumped the table.
Coffee spilled across the white tablecloth.
“Get out,” he ordered again.
“I’ll go,” I answered.
But he continued pushing me toward the entrance.
My damaged boot caught against the carpet, and I stumbled sideways.
That’s when I saw something that changed the entire situation.
An elderly woman wearing a purple coat stood at the hostess desk.
She leaned on a cane and was paying her bill.
Madison accepted her credit card.
But instead of immediately using the restaurant’s official payment terminal, she moved the card beneath the counter.
I caught a glimpse of a small black electronic device.
She passed the card through it before processing the payment normally.
The entire movement took only a moment.
Then Madison smiled.
“Thank you, Mrs. Pratt. Enjoy your afternoon.”
I recognized the behavior.
After nearly twenty years in restaurants, I’d attended numerous payment-security training sessions.
What I’d witnessed strongly suggested someone was secretly collecting customers’ card information.
