Dining and dashing is something looked down upon in the restaurant industry. A Dutch man has been grabbing the attention of restauranteurs after eating without paying at least 127 times in the last few years.
Police were called to a restaurant in Delft, Netherlands, after a man allegedly tried to skip out on the bill by faking a medical condition. According to Mike Hogeveen, the bartender at the restaurant, the man first caught his attention when he started buying people rounds and offering to share food with everyone.
Suddenly, he started shaking his left arm uncontrollably as if he was having a stroke. Paramedics were called but after examining the man, they realized that he was faking and refused to take him to the hospital as he had requested.
After the incident, the restaurant owner approached the 58-year-old man about the bill but he proposed to settle it at a later date. When the patron agreed, he started to give the restauranteur his name and address before a paramedic intervened. Apparently, the man had given them a different name and address just moments earlier.
“He thought he could get out of the bill of more than a hundred euros ($108) by pretending to be a sick person,” Hogeveen said.
The restaurant owner called the police who checked his identification. Upon looking up his file, they realized he was a “notorious food pirate” who had been terrorizing local restaurants for years. Around 127 complaints were made against him over the last few years for having eaten at restaurants without paying.
It remains unclear whether the food pirate is still in custody or if the man has continued on with his dining and dashing ways.