There are your amateur dine-and-dashers, and then there are the brothers in Cleveland who are accused of a dine-and-dashing spree through a half-dozen restaurants in three days. They allegedly rang up tabs of hundreds of dollars at each spot, then would casually go outside for a smoke and not come back for the check. Restaurant owners spread the word on social media, and were able to apprehend the pair.

The brothers picked out the finest items on the menu, as one does when they don’t plan on paying. “Top shelf champagne, foie grois, short ribs,” the chef-owner of one of their targets recounted to TV station WKYC.

The following day, they ran up three more big tabs at nice restaurants. The owner of the second restaurant hit on day one sent out an alert to other restaurant owners, and they were watching for the pair.

During lunch on Friday, one of the brothers appeared at a sixth restaurant for lunch, only 10 minutes after the owner saw the photo circulated on social media. The brothers used to work at that bar, and had actually been banned from the establishment earlier.

The owner pinned the diner down with his foot, which made for a fine photo op and a warning to other serial gourmands. “Next time just ask me for a sandwich. I’d be happy to help you out,” the owner who stomped on the dine-and-dasher told the TV station.

Social media helps bust serial dine-and-dasher [WKYC]

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