Café owner gutted after alleged dine and dash leaves her with £60 bill
- 10 days ago
This is the moment a man with two children did an alleged dine and dash after running up a £60 bill - leaving a café owner "disappointed and angry".
CCTV footage shows a balding man and two youngsters - a boy, believed to be in his teens, and a girl - enjoying a meal at Café No 35 in Canterbury, Kent.
As they come to the end of their food the man goes inside to order more - supposedly for his wife - with the kids in tow.
But as the waitress goes to place the order video shows the trio walking out of the café quickly - allegedly without having paid.
Owner Anna Carpenter, 55, said she is sharing the June 3 footage in a bid to identify the man - and warn other businesses in the area.
Kent Police are probing the incident.
Anna said: "I feel disappointed and angry about what happened - and I feel sorry for my staff who were stressed and shaken up.
"It's just upsetting that someone would take advantage like this, especially because we're an independent café.
"You know, this is our money, our passion, our time... and our livelihood.
"And we only use the services and products of other independent businesses - that's our ethos. So it harms us a lot of people.
"Especially in the current economic climate, it's so important to keep independent places alive.
"And I wouldn't want this to happen to a chain either, of course - but these kind of things hit us harder."
Anna says the group ordered two fried breakfasts, three portions of chips, five coca colas, and a milkshake - with the bill coming to around £60.
But despite placing another order after finishing the first lot, they disappeared, she claims.
Anna said: "I had two young girls working on that day and we were very busy.
"The group kept trying to get my waitress's attention, and when she went out to see them, they would order more food.
"My waitress said she started to feel uneasy because the man kept peering through the window looking inside the café.
"He did it so often that she did feel that something wasn’t quite right and she certainly felt uncomfortable.
"When I watched the CCTV back, it did look really strange that he spent so much time looking through the window.
"Everything my waitress had told me was there on the CCTV. They walked out very quickly and certainly left at pace.
"It’s just one of those things and there are people out there who do this sort of thing all the time."
Anna said the alleged dine and dash is another blow for the business in an already-difficult economic climate.
She said: "So many venues have closed across the country and it is quite frightening the impact that all of these issues, certainly since the pandemic, have had on the industry.
“We’re just doing the best we can to stay in business so for somebody to steal from us hurts and affects all of the staff."
Anna, who opened the business three-and-a-half years ago, shared a CCTV image on Facebook and is urging anyone who knows the man and two children to get in touch.
CCTV footage shows a balding man and two youngsters - a boy, believed to be in his teens, and a girl - enjoying a meal at Café No 35 in Canterbury, Kent.
As they come to the end of their food the man goes inside to order more - supposedly for his wife - with the kids in tow.
But as the waitress goes to place the order video shows the trio walking out of the café quickly - allegedly without having paid.
Owner Anna Carpenter, 55, said she is sharing the June 3 footage in a bid to identify the man - and warn other businesses in the area.
Kent Police are probing the incident.
Anna said: "I feel disappointed and angry about what happened - and I feel sorry for my staff who were stressed and shaken up.
"It's just upsetting that someone would take advantage like this, especially because we're an independent café.
"You know, this is our money, our passion, our time... and our livelihood.
"And we only use the services and products of other independent businesses - that's our ethos. So it harms us a lot of people.
"Especially in the current economic climate, it's so important to keep independent places alive.
"And I wouldn't want this to happen to a chain either, of course - but these kind of things hit us harder."
Anna says the group ordered two fried breakfasts, three portions of chips, five coca colas, and a milkshake - with the bill coming to around £60.
But despite placing another order after finishing the first lot, they disappeared, she claims.
Anna said: "I had two young girls working on that day and we were very busy.
"The group kept trying to get my waitress's attention, and when she went out to see them, they would order more food.
"My waitress said she started to feel uneasy because the man kept peering through the window looking inside the café.
"He did it so often that she did feel that something wasn’t quite right and she certainly felt uncomfortable.
"When I watched the CCTV back, it did look really strange that he spent so much time looking through the window.
"Everything my waitress had told me was there on the CCTV. They walked out very quickly and certainly left at pace.
"It’s just one of those things and there are people out there who do this sort of thing all the time."
Anna said the alleged dine and dash is another blow for the business in an already-difficult economic climate.
She said: "So many venues have closed across the country and it is quite frightening the impact that all of these issues, certainly since the pandemic, have had on the industry.
“We’re just doing the best we can to stay in business so for somebody to steal from us hurts and affects all of the staff."
Anna, who opened the business three-and-a-half years ago, shared a CCTV image on Facebook and is urging anyone who knows the man and two children to get in touch.