‘Tipping Henry:’ Online crime group paying it forward

By Zac Summers and Miles Montgomery

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    MCDONOUGH, Georgia (WGCL) — Moderators of a Henry County Facebook group, dedicated to crime, are trying to show there’s more to their community than violence.

When Cory Hise started the Henry County Crime Watch group on Facebook six years ago, his goal was to keep his neighbors in the know about the crimes happening across the county. However, the father of two recently noticed posts started to have an adverse effect.

“Yes, we’re keeping people notified about what’s going on, but it was also scaring people,” Hise said. “It was making people think there was nothing but crime going on.”

Looking to turn negative content into something positive, Hise and other moderators started what they call “Tipping Henry.”

“All of the members of the crime watch group will donate money and once each week, we’ll take those donations and do something positive,” Hise explained.

This week, Hise chose Laceta Dyer-Jack, a server at Longhorn in McDonough. On Monday, two customers raked up a nearly $100 bill and left before paying. It was the first time, in 20 years of serving, Dryer-Jack has ever had a customer dine and dash.

“It’s not fair,” Dyer-Jack said. “Whatever they tip us, that’s our pay. If they dine and dash, we don’t get paid.”

AS CBS46 was interviewing Dyer-Jack on Friday, Hise surprised her with a cash tip of $502, the amount raised by his Facebook group of more than 30,000 members.

“Everybody has a soft spot for someone they see working really hard and the group just came together and wanted to see that she was treated right,” Hise said.

His hope is that his group’s simple acts of kidness will catch on in other communities.

“Anything to spread some joy,” Hise said.

“This will go a long way for me,” Dyer-Jack said with a big smile on her face. “Thank you, thank you! Thank you so much.”

Hise has been spreading joy through “tipping henry” for about four months now. He said this week’s tip to Dyer-Jack was their largest to date. The group usually collects between $200-$300 dollars every week.

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