A Red Baron worker who was targeted by a fake Apple Pay prank while stocking frozen pizzas has received more than $679,000 from strangers after his reaction went viral. The worker, identified only as Walt Z., was on the clock at a Meijer in White Lake, Michigan, when a content creator walked up with a camera rolling and asked him for the time.
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When Walt pulled out his phone to check, the person held their own phone close to his and played a sound made to resemble an Apple Pay payment. Then they claimed they had just taken $10 from him, thanked him, and told him he needed to buy something. The person had been pulling the same stunt on random people, making them believe a stranger had just taken their money.
Viewers could tell the sound was prerecorded. Walt could not, and he did not laugh.
“I don’t have time for this. My life is hard enough as it is,” he said in the video. “You’re probably making money off this. I can’t pay my mortgage, and I got four kids at home.”
That moment changed how people saw the video. Instead of laughing along, people online sided with the Red Baron worker and turned on the person filming. The prankster’s account has since been deactivated.
Luke Oakenshield, an Arizona man who does not know Walt, started a GoFundMe for him on October 27. The original goal was $100,000. Donations blew past that within days, and the goal was raised to $700,000. CBS News Detroit reported that in the first two days alone, people gave anywhere from $10 to $30,000. As of Saturday, the fundraiser had collected more than $679,000 from over 19,000 donations, and the page says the money goes directly to Walt. Oakenshield said he was able to reach Walt and confirmed he knew about the fundraiser.
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Walt posted a message of his own on the fundraiser page. “I wanted to take a moment to personally thank everyone who has donated, shared this fundraiser, or left a kind message,” he wrote.
His employer has his back too. Red Baron told Fox News Digital that the encounter happened in August and involved a member of its Direct Store Delivery team, the workers who stock the company’s products on store shelves. The brand then posted on X, “He’s still here. He’s got a fan club. Including us,” along with a graphic announcing that Employee of the Month nominations were closed.
The response to this Red Baron worker comes as more people push back on prank content that uses everyday workers as props. Walt was in the middle of a shift, worried about his bills and his kids, and the person filming treated that as a punchline. The people watching decided he deserved better.
