Florida bartender goes viral for disguising a note as a receipt to help customers he thought were being harassed

• A woman tweeted that Florida bartender Max Gutierrez helped her out of a harassment situation.
• She wrote that Gutierrez passed her a note disguised as a receipt with a message offering help.
• Gutierrez later identified himself as the bartender pictured on Twitter.

A woman's tweet thanking a bartender in St. Petersburg, Florida, for protecting them from a customer she said was harassing them has gotten attention for the discreet way he appeared to offer help.

Twitter user @trinityallie shared a picture on June 13 of a bartender holding a small note on a clipboard disguised as a receipt.

"If this guy is bothering you, put your ponytail on your other shoulder, and I will have him removed," the note reads.

The photo has been retweeted more than 44,000 times since @trinityallie shared it.

"This man was harassing me and my friend and the bartender passed this note to me acting like it was my receipt," the woman wrote. "Legit the type of bartender everyone needs."

-trinity✨ (@trinityallie) June 14, 2021

Four days after @trinityallie published the tweet, Max Gutierrez, the bartender pictured in the photo, responded on Twitter and identified himself.

Gutierrez was working at No Vacancy, a bar and restaurant in St. Petersburg, when he offered help to the two customers, according to an article by Matt Cohen published in the Tampa Bay Times on Monday.

When Gutierrez saw a man "aggressively hitting on" the two women at No Vacancy, he shared the note with them, then yelled at the man and made him leave the bar, @trinityallie wrote in the Twitter thread.

-trinity✨ (@trinityallie) June 15, 2021

Gutierrez tweeted that the same man @trinityallie mentioned had tried to return to the bar later that weekend.

-Max Gutierrez (@Maxican28) June 17, 2021

Gutierrez also appeared to talk about the incident on Reddit, according to another Tweet by @trinityallie.

-trinity✨ (@trinityallie) June 17, 2021

In the screenshotted image in @trinityallie's Tweet, Gutierrez, under the Reddit username @Maxlifts, said the man at the bar was "giving off weird vibes," for a while, so he "kept an eye on him," and "gave him a chance" before yelling at him to leave.

"I honestly don't like yelling at customers or embarrassing people, but I find it's one of the best ways to handle creeps," the comment reads. "I just don't need my guests feeling uncomfortable."

Gutierrez, @trinityallie on Twitter, and representatives for No Vacancy, respectively, didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.