Restaurant owner breaks silence after video shows family of 10 dining and dashing without paying bill
By Sheldon Fox, Kevin Boulandier
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MIAMI, Florida (WSVN) — A restaurant owner is speaking out after a video shows a family of 10 leaving his restaurant without paying for their meal.
David Garcia, owner of the popular and historic La Camaronera Seafood Joint and Fish Market on West Flagler Street, said surveillance video shows a criminal example of a dine and ditch.
“It’s a family with a baby on board and kids, and it shows a terrible example,” he said. “Clearly dashed to the car.”
In an exclusive interview with 7News, Garcia recounted how the large family skipped out on their bill and engaged in an eat-and-run last Friday at his restaurant.
Video, provided to 7News by Garcia, shows the family hustling into their parked SUV as the waiter runs after them, realizing that the bill hasn’t been paid.
“You see him pulling off, and the driver driving off on Flagler and my employee kind of had to jump off the vehicle, which put his life in danger,” said Garcia.
“Any chance they didn’t see him?” asked 7News reporter Sheldon Fox.
“Oh, absolutely they saw him, yeah. They wouldn’t have sped it out of this parking lot the way they did,” said Garcia.
Despite the family’s actions, Garcia says they’ve been forgiven after someone came back to the restaurant to do damage control.
“A family member has come in and paid their bill,” said Garcia.
An older relative, who wasn’t at the restaurant on Friday, returned on Monday to pay the $428 bill. But Garcia said that only happened because the restaurant exposed the family’s action on social media.
“No restaurant should go through what we went through that day and what my employee went through. That employee of mine had a baby three days before,” said Garcia.
But as a seasonal goodwill, Garcia requested the faces of the family members be blurred in the video due to concerns for the children involved. He also said he didn’t call the police on the family.
Still, the owner has a message to anyone else who thinks about trying the same thing.
“If anybody thinks about doing it, they’re gonna get caught,” said Garcia.
He added that his restaurant has plenty of cameras.
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