Santa Monica police arrested a 23-year-old resident of San Mateo, California on Saturday, Oct. 19 after refusing to pay for a meal at a local restaurant.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department went to a restaurant located in the 1500 block of Lincoln Boulevard at 6 am on this day after receiving a report of a man who had consumed a meal but had refused to pay for it.
When the officers arrived they saw the suspect (of whom they had been given a description) standing forlornly in front of the restaurant.
The officers detained this man while they interviewed the staff at the restaurant.
The officers learned that this man had allegedly entered the restaurant and had confirmed that he was able and willing to pay for the meal that he was ordering.
After the man had satiated himself with the meal, and had been presented with the bill, he declared that he was not going to pay for the meal.
The police were subsequently summoned.
The officers spoke with the suspect and determined that he had no intention, or ability (due to his lack of money, credit cards or gift certificates) to pay for the meal.
The officers also discovered that the suspect had previously had a taste of justice for exactly the same offense.
This was arrested and 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.
