News, Apb, Santa Monica, Police Department

Homeless Man Enjoys Denny's Breakfast; Arrested After Not Having Cash To Pay

Alert Police Blotter: Savor The Punishment.

Posted Mar. 12, 2013, 9:01 am

Tim Broughton / Mirror Contributor

A 35-year-old homeless man was arrested on Thursday, Feb. 28 after having breakfast at a Santa Monica Denny’s Restaurant, but not having any money to pay for the meal.

At 6:20 am officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to Denny’s at 1560 Lincoln Boulevard in order to investigate a man who was unable to pay for his meal.

The officers spoke with the manager when they arrived.

The manager told the officers the suspect had entered the restaurant, seated himself at a table, looked at the menu, and ordered a breakfast (even though the time of the incident was during the part of the day that many people do consume breakfast style dishes, this man could conceivably have committed the exact offense at any time of the day, because Denny’s are fond of publicizing the fact that “Breakfast is Served All Day”).

This man had then consumed the breakfast, and when presented with the bill he simply told them that he “could not pay.”

The officers thus placed this homeless man, at the behest of the manager of the restaurant, under a private person’s arrest, and he was subsequently charged with defrauding an innkeeper.

Bail was set at $500.

Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.