Danny had a run-in with one determined restaurateur. After the waitress bungled his credit card payment, the owner tracked him down on Facebook, asked him to become a fan of the restaurant, then came to his door to demand the money in person.

He writes:

I wanted to share a quick story with Consumerist about a weird encounter I experienced at a local Japanese/Korean restaurant, [redacted]. Earlier this week a friend and I went to lunch at a brand new mom-and-pop restaurant in Southeastern Arizona. Our tab came to about $40 with tip and I paid with a credit card. The food and service were average, but we talked about how we probably wouldn’t be returning.

Later that evening, around 8:30 my door bell rang. Thinking it was FedEx dropping off an order, I expected to look through the peephole to see a large truck driving away, however I noticed a middle-aged man who I didn’t recognize. When I opened the door the stranger asked if I was Danny and if I had eaten at the restaurant earlier in the day. I replied yes, and he went on to tell me that he was the owner of the restaurant and the waitress serving us voided the credit card transaction for our meal. He asked if I would pay for the transaction again. I asked to see proof of the voided transaction, so he provided me with the signed receipt and the voided transaction record. I didn’t have any cash so he requested the expiration date on my credit card so he could re-run the card. I ran to get my wallet in the other room when I hear him loudly explain to me how he couldn’t find me in the Yellow Pages, but he did successfully find me on Facebook, making it a point to ask me to become a fan of the restaurant. I gave him my expiration date, he thanked me and left.

I was so confused (and quite a bit creeped out) at this point as to why someone would show up at my house late in the evening asking me to pay for a mistake his employee made, then ask me to become one of their fans on Facebook. I ended up calling the friend I went to lunch with earlier and she agreed that it was quite creepy. The bottom line is that I didn’t mind paying for the lunch… after all I thought I already had, rather how weird the whole situation was. After spending the next 10 minutes looking online to see if my actual address came up (spoiler alert: it DID NOT), I decided to call the restaurant to explain just how weird this whole thing truly was.

The owner seemed very surprised that I felt weirded out by his visit. I told him that he should have taken the money out of the waitresses pay, and not gone out of his way to track down a customer. After telling him that I don’t have a problem paying, rather a problem with his unannounced visit, I informed him that I wouldn’t be returning to the restaurant. He didn’t seem to have a problem with that, and hung up. A couple minutes later, his wife called me back saying they were not going to charge my card.

I am sharing this story with consumerist to see if you or other readers would also be weirded out by the situation. Is this guy nuts… or is this normal for a restaurant to take this type of action?

It’s obvious that the restaurant guy is way over the line here. Has any business owner gone to such a great length to get your money?

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.