Michigan dad, Red Baron vendor 'blown away' by over $450,000 fundraiser after he confronts nuisance streamer pranksters who harass him at work

The Red Baron Pizza employee and father, identified as Walt Z out of Michigan, was going about his business when a pair of online trolls approached him, asked him what time it was, and then played the "Apple Pay Prank," where the streamer played the Apple Pay transaction sound and said “I just took $10” from the worker.

"Don't mess with me right now, OK?" Walt said in response. The Red Baron employee asked if he was being recorded and then walked away, telling the content creator that he was going to report him. The streamer reportedly posted under the Instagram handle "@thea.ctiveworld" but the account has since been taken offline.

As the content creator leaves the store, he told the worker, "Thank you for the $20." One of his buddies then said, "You need to stop."

The worker went off on the content creator, who wanted to treat the situation as "just a joke."

"No, it's not a joke to me, OK? I don't have time for this crap in my life. My life is hard enough as it is. OK, I don't need this crap," Walt said. "I got kids at home who went to bed without me right now, and I was supposed to be home an hour ago, and I'm still out here working and I gotta get up at 5 in the morning and do ten more stores. So this is not a joke to me!"

Walt went on, saying that he may get kicked out of the store location, "And now I'm probably going to get kicked out of this store because of you! Not funny!"

The content creator claimed, "OK, I'm sorry bro-"

"You’re not sorry, because you’ve got a smug look on your face. And you’re probably making money off of this. And I can’t even pay my godd*mn mortgage. And I’ve got four kids at home," he said.

The group filming said they would leave.

In response to the viral video, there has been an outpouring of support for the employee and widespread criticism of the content creator.

Sarah Fields out of Texas said, "This broke me. Find this man. Find him and I will personally fundraise for him."

Some thought that the employee would be fired, but the company blew apart those expectations, saying in a post to X, " He’s still here. He’s got a fan club. Including us," and added that "nominations are closed" for employee of the month. "You know why."

The top donation on the GoFundMe for Walt is a company known as Higgsfield AI, which gave the worker $30,000.

The creator of the fundraiser, who said he did not know Walt personally, said in an update that the worker "sends a heartfelt thank you, and is absolutely blown away by how much people have cared over this. They are requesting privacy, and GoFundMe is taking the lead in transferring all of this to him."