DeKALB | Asking for a water cup at a restaurant and secretly filling it with pop or swiping ketchup packets may seem like a common practice to some.

Many might argue that there is nothing wrong with taking small things from restaurants, but many more might consider it stealing.

According to an Oct. 8 Chicago Tribune article, Starbucks Coffee Company is often a victim of the “bootleg latte.” The bootleg latte is a customer’s creation of condiments available courtesy of the coffee shop. Despite the article’s findings, DeKalb’s Starbucks franchise, 1015 W. Lincoln Highway, appears to be unaffected by this type of stealing.

“I’ve seen people do it with the lattes, but not in this store,” said manager Patricia Heaton.

“We have honest customers. We’re pretty lucky.”

Unlike Starbucks, Burger King, 913 W. Lincoln Highway, is affected by other forms of stealing. Whether it’s filling free water cups with pop or stealing condiments, Burger King has seen it all.

“They may have a four-piece chicken tender and ask for all of the sauces, but they only have four tenders,” said Burger King supervisor Krystal Scott.

Other than stealing condiments and pop, the abuse of the Village Commons Book Store discount card is also rampant among local businesses. Students take advantage of the card by secretly passing it back to their friends behind them in line.

“I hate that,” Scott said. “They’ll pass the card around and end up getting five free Whoppers.”

Lee Blankenship, creator of the VCB discount card and owner of the Village Commons Book Store, 901 Lucinda Ave., claims the free discount card is a good thing for students, but does not agree with the abuse of it.

“Five students can’t use one card,” Blankenship said, “but they’re free so [students] can come in and get their own as long as we still have them.”

Patrick McDonough, operations supervisor of the Subway in the Holmes Student Center, agrees with Blankenship that the VCB card is a good thing.

“It actually gets people to come in to the store more than they probably would,” McDonough said. “The discount applied to the card doesn’t hurt us. We cover our costs.”

In general, many students agree that taking advantage of restaurants is wrong and is considered stealing. Students who do take advantage of restaurants justify their stealing by claiming it’s not going to hurt the business.

“It’s wrong,” said sophomore management major Gary Krusenoski. “[But] on big monopolies, no, it’s not wrong.”

Scott disagreed with Krusenoski’s views.

“When they take a water cup, we mark it down as a water, but when they take a pop instead, we don’t get credited for that,” she said.

In the end, local businesses do lose money on items that are taken or not paid for.

“We appreciate their business because they are a main source of our income here,” Scott said. “But we just do not appreciate when you try to extend services that we already give without asking or being considerate of others.”

Herminia Irizarry is a City Reporter for the Northern Star.