Restaurants plagued by patrons running out on bill

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This article was published 02/09/2023 (735 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A dine-and-dash epidemic has Winnipeg restaurant owners pleading for help from the province and police to push the item off their menus.

While the crime has been around for as long as the restaurant business itself, sector members say the problem has exploded since establishments reopened after the dropping of COVID-19 pandemic public health restrictions.

“The amount of incidents of dine and dash has gone to five times higher,” Shaun Jeffrey, executive director of the Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association, said this week.

“I worked 20 years in restaurants, and the difference between then and now with dine and dashes is different. It has always been there but not to the extreme it is now. There have even been times where violence is threatened when the person is leaving without paying,” Jeffrey said.

“They don’t just sneak out — now they are blatant and doing it right in front of (staff) faces.”

It is similar to the highly publicized situation plaguing Liquor Marts pre-pandemic, when thieves would openly load their arms with bottles of liquor and walk out without paying.

After Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corp. implemented measures, including asking for ID at the door before allowing patrons access, such reported thefts decreased by more than 90 per cent.

However, Jeffrey said restaurants aren’t comfortable with taking those types of measures (except on the lounge side, where they have to check ID to make sure people are old enough to legally drink).

“You can’t take the hospitality out of the hospitality sector,” he said. “Our industry is based on fun experiences and smiles and being happy. Something like this is a last resort, but we are at a last resort.

“It is very frustrating for us.”

“They don’t just sneak out– now they are blatant and doing it right in front of (staff) faces.” —Shaun Jeffrey

Association members have been pleading to the provincial government and police for help, but the answer they get is mostly about long-term solutions, he said. “Where are the immediate solutions to our immediate problems?”

Earlier this week, patrons of Smitty’s Family Restaurant in the Garden City Shopping Centre took to social media to praise the outlet for appearing to implement an ID check at the door before they were allowed to enter and order food.

“I didn’t have a problem showing them my ID,” said one patron, who didn’t want to be named.

“They said it was because of all the dine and dash. My son worked at (a retail outlet) as security, and he had to wear a stab vest. If it was your son or daughter working there, wouldn’t you want them protected?

“If you don’t want to show your ID, you can leave, but all I saw was a full restaurant.”

Valerie Funk, co-owner of five Smitty’s in Winnipeg, said despite what a staff member told Garden Hill patrons, the checking of IDs was for a different reason. The location is being renovated and, for a time, the lounge (where VLTs are installed) and the restaurant were temporarily linked.

However, Funk said, dining and dashing is a rising concern.

“It’s a big problem,” she said. “It is definitely out there. We can call the police, but they are busy. If the government can’t protect us, do we have to put (ID) scanners in?”

“We have to assume people are honest. Ninety-nine per cent of people are– it is the one per cent.” —Tony Siwicki

Tony Siwicki, owner of Silver Heights Restaurant and president of Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association, said if establishments were to take tougher measures, they would all have to be on the same menu.

“Unless everybody did it, there would be backlash,” Siwicki said. “So we are doing what we can without losing the whole hospitality touch.

“We have to assume people are honest. Ninety-nine per cent of people are — it is the one per cent.”

Siwicki said he has heard of some restaurants being stuck with unpaid tabs up to $1,000. There is no way of predicting who will steal a meal from a restaurant; it crosses both gender and age lines, he added.

“They will be the guy who chats a lot and is friendly, comes in for dinner and a drink and then is gone,” Siwicki said.

“Other times, it will be two women who go out for a smoke and leave a purse behind. Half an hour later the server says, ‘I will check the purse’ and … it is a $2 purse stuffed with flyers.

“It can be kids, older people — it is everyone.”

A spokesman for Manitoba Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen said the minister can’t speak of new initiatives in the run-up to the provincial election in October.

However, Goertzen did recently meet with the restaurant association and heard its concerns, the spokesman said.

The justice minister shared “some of the initiatives — such as more law enforcement, integrated monitored camera systems, investments in Downtown Community Safety Partnership and community safety officers, to name a few — that will have a positive impact on crime reduction,” the spokesman said.

“The PC party will expand on new community safety measures during the imminent provincial election campaign.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca