A Florida restaurant says a family of seven worked together to pull off an elaborate dine-and-dash, leaving behind a $300 bill after slowly slipping out in small groups. Security footage of the incident quickly went viral, leaving viewers stunned by how carefully the family allegedly planned their exit.
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.
The surveillance footage appears to show members of the group leaving in stages, with one person exiting first before others gradually followed. According to the restaurant, one woman remained at the table until the end, seemingly to avoid raising suspicion before she also walked out without paying.
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.
Certain Instagram users didn’t even mince words with their comments, writing concerning opinions such as, “Desegregation was a mistake.” Regardless 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.
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.”
While many commenters condemned the family’s alleged actions, others also pushed back against the racist stereotypes that surfaced in response to the viral video, arguing that the crime should be judged on the individuals involved rather than their race.
