BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Last week, an anonymous tip came into TMJ4's newsroom about a situation unfolding at Jake's Restaurant in Brookfield. The tip said that employee's paychecks were bouncing when they deposited them, and that the state had come and shut the restaurant down.
On Wednesday, June 19th, Jenna Rae went to Jake's. A sign on the door said it was closed for maintenance. Rae knocked anyways.
The general manager opened the door and said the owner wasn't there. Rae left her card for the owner to call her, but never heard from him.
Today, we talked with three employees who said their paychecks have bounced more than once, and they want their money.
The employees from Jake's Restaurant wanted to protect their identities by being anonymous.
"They bounced right when we have to pay our bills. We have to pay our rent and stuff," employee one said.
"I got a letter from my bank saying we're subtracting funds from your account above. Our reason is there's not enough funds to pay this check," employee two explained.
Employee three told us when his paycheck bounced the first time he tried to quit.
"They reassured me and kept coming up with excuses, and I've given it three paychecks since then," employee three added.
"And nothing," Rae asked.
"No," he said.
On Tuesday, June 18th, employees told us a woman, who identified herself as being someone with the Department of Revenue (DOR) showed up at the restaurant.
"I was at the host stand, and a lady came in 'is Jake here?' I said 'no, do you want to talk to Cy? Cy's the general manager.' She said fine. She went to talk to Cy. A few minutes later, 'we have to close down due to Jake owing money to the Department of Revenue," employee two explained.
DOR records show the owner of Jake's Restaurant owes more than $74,000 in unpaid sales taxes. It also shows the state pulled its license on June 13th, five days before DOR showed up in person.
"I had to call all the reservations and say 'you can't come tonight', and they're asking why, and I said 'for legal reasons I really can't tell you'," employee two said. "I made up an excuse for having this, this and this, again excuses."
We went back to Jake's Restaurant today. The general manager was there again, but said I had to speak with the owner, who he said, wasn't there.
We called the owners cell phone, but the automatic recording said the voicemail box was full.
So, we sent the owner a text message letting him know about the story.
Wednesday afternoon, he emailed Rae and said he's available to talk next week and said "we will be resuming service next week after we finish on the current building projects."
We asked employees what the owner was referring to, and they said there are no projects being completed at the restaurant.
"One of my main concerns is no one has done anything about this. We have all complained and moaned, obviously in house and in the restaurant itself. I don't want to see this keep happening," employee two said.
We got this story from an anonymous tip. If you have a story you want Jenna Rae to investigate, you can email her at Jenna.Rae@tmj4.com.
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