Dine and dash

hideThis article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article possibly contains original research. Please by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (August 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (August 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may , discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (April 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Dine and dash is the US phrase for a form of theft by fraud, in which a patron orders and consumes food and beverages from a restaurant or similar establishment with the intent not to pay.^[1] The act may involve the customer leaving the restaurant with the intent of evading payment, or, less commonly, of the patron eating the food and then stating that they do not have any money.

Legal aspects[]

In English law, "dine and dash" falls under the crime of making off without payment introduced in 1978; the law was later copied in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Simply failing to pay a bill when due is generally not a crime in most United States circumstances or jurisdictions. It is a contract debt, and the act is civil rather than criminal in nature. However, there are often laws that apply specifically to restaurants, hotels, and other circumstances, where the presumption is that the customer intended to never pay their bill in advance and therefore obtained the valuable services under false pretenses, a form of criminal fraud. In certain states, dining and dashing is not labelled as a criminal issue. For example, in California, it is considered a petty theft, while in Mississippi, it is a felony offense to refuse to pay a bill over $25.00.^{[citation needed]} In one case, Paul Guadalupe Gonzales, who became known as the "Dine-and-Dash Dater", was arrested and charged with 10 felonies after 13 women came forward about his actions.^[2][3]

Sometimes the establishment may make their employees pay the cost of customer theft to give them an incentive to police their customers. They may do so explicitly by deducting unpaid meals from wages or tips, or implicitly through an end-of-shift reconciliation system whereby the server is expected to provide enough cash and credit card receipts to cover the cost of their customers' meals, and keeps any surplus as tips. In some locales, this is an illegal form of wage theft,^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]} and if the server is held responsible for tabs that are not paid, the employer is liable for paying back the server's stolen wages.

In Michigan and many other states, "Defrauding an innkeeper" is a specialized statutory misdemeanor offense, with a maximum penalty of 93 days in jail and a fine of up to $500 and possible probation for up to 2 years. It can be charged either under state law or local ordinance. The gravamen of this offense involved failure to pay an incurred bill at a bar, cafe, hotel, motel or restaurant with intent to defraud the business establishment.^[10]

See also[]

• Cecil Edwards and Democracy Manifest video
• List of restaurant terminology
• Red Skelton's Freddie the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner

References[]