WILLIAMSBURG — An IHOP waitress ripped off her hip-hop producer boss by surreptitiously tipping herself more than $15,000 over seven months before she was caught, authorities said.
Janet McLean pocketed $15,891 by over-tipping herself — sometimes nearly 70 percent — pilfering from boss Robert Cummins (aka Don Pooh) who is a part-owner of the IHOP at 785 Flushing Ave., near Broadway, and a former MCA Records executive who helped produce Mary J. Blige, according to prosecutors and reports.
Cummins owns another IHOP in downtown Brooklyn, according to a Daily News report from 2007.
McLean voided dozens of transactions and charged customers the same amount, pocketing the difference in extraordinarily high tips, prosecutors said.
McLean was toast once Cummins' business partner stumbled across several receipts where she earned tremendously high tips, like instances where a customer tipped $20 for a $30 meal, prosecutors said.
All sales and voids are logged in a computer system, and when he began reviewing McLean's track record he tallied up $15,891 in voided sales that dated back to early January and corresponded with hefty tips, prosecutors said.
McLean was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Nov. 29 and released without bail. She's due back in court on Feb. 1, according to court records.
A manager of the IHOP declined to comment on the incident.
McLean's Legal Aid lawyer could not be reached for comment.
