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Man punches pal, pees on pizzas in drunken rage

A truck driver's visit to a pizzeria in eastern Sweden spiralled out of control, leaving him bloodied and in his underwear, another man's dentures crushed, and fellow diners aghast at having their food drenched with an unwanted topping.

Published: 10 September 2012 10:45 CEST
Man punches pal, pees on pizzas in drunken rage
The pizza in the picture is not the pizza mentioned in the article

What began as a harmless night out with fellow drivers at a restaurant in Hallstavik, 100 kilometres north of Stockholm, took a turn for the worse when the 29-year-old truck driver was denied more beer because he was already too drunk, the local Norrtelje Tidning newspaper reported.

Enraged at being cut off by staff at the pizzeria, the driver proceeded to urinate on other diners’ food.

His friends then started attacking other guests at the establishment on the belief someone had called police.

The angry driver then lost track of who was friend or foe, knocking flat one his friends who was trying to help the drunken 29-year-old find the door.

While police detained the 29-year-old’s punched out friend, the irate driver managed to escape the scene, only to mysteriously turn up in another man’s kitchen a short time later, bloodied and wearing only his underwear.

Exactly what happened to the 29-year-old’s clothes remains unclear, but along the way he managed to punch an unfortunate passerby in the face with such force that he knocked out the man’s dentures, whereupon the mad driver stomped the toothless victim’s falsies into the ground.

The proprietor of the kitchen into which the 29-year-old stumbled kindly offered to give the man a ride, only to find himself eating a knuckle sandwich courtesy of the rampaging truck driver as they made their way to the good Samaritan’s car, according to the paper.

But the driver’s drunken rampage, which took place on a Wednesday night in early August, wasn’t over yet.

Later in the evening, the 29-year-old tried to steal a car parked in a nearby driveway.

Unfortunately for the would-be car thief, the vehicle was equipped with an alcolock, preventing him from getting the car started and limiting his flight to a mere five metres.

The drunken driver with a fancy for fisticuffs nearly evaded capture for the evening’s escapades, but was eventually tracked down by police after he left his credit card and a pack of cigarettes in the car he’d attempted to steal.

He was finally apprehended at 1am and subsequently charged with two counts of assault and attempted auto theft.

Last week he was convicted on all charges and sentenced to three months in prison.

He was also ordered to pay a total of 25,000 kronor ($3,750) in compensation to two of the men he hit, according to Norrtelje Tidning.

The Local/dl

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FOOD AND DRINK

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

Should you tip in Sweden? Habits are changing fast thanks to new technology and a hard-pressed restaurant trade, writes James Savage.

Published: 5 April 2024 13:59 CEST
OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits. 

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user). 

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

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