It appears one restaurant in Florida can’t catch a break, because they keep getting dine-and-dashers, though this time around, it’s a family that has stolen from them. To make matters worse, the family even brought their kids along in their crime, which they pulled of in a more elaborate manner. The family fled in waves to avoid catching suspicion, and their actions were caught in a security camera where the footage has gone viral, leading to outrage.
The incident happened in The Diner located in Orlando, Florida, around July 19. The footage shows a family of seven and how they performed their dine and dash. Initially, only one person left the table and went outside, followed by the man and three girls, leaving the last woman at the table, who supposedly “stayed behind to make it look like she was gonna pay.”
Eventually, she also left the table, and it appears no server or waiter noticed that they hadn’t paid yet. Apparently, the family ran away from a $300 check and at the time of writing, haven’t been caught or identified yet by the authorities. The video has since gained millions of views across multiple social media platforms but it’s not clear whether the restaurant plans to escalate the matters or not.
People online are raising up racial stereotypes
The backlash, however, was swift with some TikTok users even coming up with Facebook accounts of who they think the man was. Other comments have blamed the race and skin color of the family for their crime, with comments ranging from subtle, such as “Are we all noticing a pattern here ?” to straightforward, “Black” and “This is why profiling and stereotypes exist.”
Certain Instagram users didn’t even mince words with their comments, writing concerning opinions such as, “Desegregation was a mistake.” Regardess of the dine-and-dashers’ skin color and culture, however, many people online felt sorry for the kids for having shady parents, “And with kids? What a great role model.” Others fear that the restaurant will need to start charging up front because of the repeated dine and dash incidents even dating back to February. “Restaurants are going to start take payments prior to dining,” rants a commenter.
Thankfully, some of the more level-headed Instagram users chimed in on the matter and called out the racial stereotypes as well as the family who dined-and-dashed. “Some of these comments are a little disturbing but I am very sorry that this happened again to your establishment. The only thing I can suggest is customers pay prior to receiving their meals or the waiters/waitresses need to monitor their tables better and eyes on the door more,” according to the commenter.
