See secret note a Florida bartender passed to a patron in need: ‘Giving me the creeps’

As bar crawlers creep back out there as we emerge from the pandemic, there are other things to worry about again besides masks and viral load: other patrons.

A Florida woman expressed her gratitude on social media last week to a bartender for helping free her from a potentially uncomfortable situation.

The Tampa resident with the handle @trinityallie posted a picture in a June 13 tweet of the bartender, explaining to her followers what happened with a fellow customer.

“This man was harassing me and my friend and the bartender passed this note to me acting like it was my receipt!” the customer’s caption read. “Legit the type of bartender everyone needs.”

This man was harrassssing me and my friend and the bartender passed this note to me acting like it was my receipt ! Legit the type of bartender everyone needs pic.twitter.com/kGTGekNFgl

— trinity (@trinityallie) June 14, 2021

Her photo is of Max Gutierrez, a St. Petersburg barkeep at No Vacancy. He is seen handing a surreptitious note on a clipboard usually used for receipts. It reads, “If this guy is bothering you, put your ponytail on your other shoulder, and I will have him removed. He’s giving me the creeps.”

She then explains what happened after the note was passed: “He ended up having to literally yell at the guy. He said, ‘You need to get [the bleep] away from these girls who clearly are not interested,’ ” she wrote of the incident. “And the dude said, ‘That was a little aggressive,’ and he said, ‘Well, you’re aggressively hitting on them and you need to leave.’”

According to the Tampa Bay Times, a few days after her widely shared post, Gutierrez posted a message on Reddit, saying he knew what to do in that type of situation because he can read body language from his experience on the job.

“I honestly don’t like yelling at customers or embarrassing people,” he wrote. “But I find it’s one of the best ways to handle creeps.”

Gutierrez, with the Twitter handle @Maxican28, also responded to @trinityallie’s original appreciative tweet, identifying himself as the hero, and also giving an update.

“Hey, that’s me! Lol,” he wrote. “Fun update, the guy I kicked out Sunday night came back to the bar JUST NOW for a beer, told him I wouldn’t serve him.”