Kid uses his 'hip injury' to leave a restaurant without paying — CCTV footage exposes his petty plan
This was the waitress's first instance of dine-and-dash, which left her with just $170 for a 14-hour shift
For restaurant employees, a dine-and-dash is not only frustrating but also can directly affect their pay. One waitress (u/Procrastal) experienced this firsthand while serving barbecue to a group when a couple had slipped without paying. What initially looked like an ordinary situation took a different turn once CCTV footage exposed what she later described as a carefully planned exit. The incident left her in tears and struggling with guilt over something she never saw coming, as she wrote in the May 3, 2026, Reddit post.
First-ever double shift gone wrong
In her post, the woman said she wasn't too well, yet she decided to do a double shift for the first time in six months. She was assigned an AYCE KBBQ (All-You-Can-Eat Korean Barbeque) grill for one of the top 10 party reservations. "They’re enjoying themselves; I cook a little bit for the kids, but for the large part they’re a relatively needy, loud, rude but sufficient table," she wrote. The server ensured to punch in their ages because the AYCE prices were separate for kids from four to seven and eight to twelve.
Red flags everywhere
When it was time to hand them the bill, they asked the waitress to split it into five. However, her mood sank as the customers insisted that all of the kids were seven. "I try explaining to them that I’d rung their ages in hours ago, but they’re not having it, so I grit my teeth and get my manager to help me out," she said.
Dine and dash
While juggling several tables, the waitress later went to collect payment from a woman who had ordered six seasonal shots for the group. The woman pointed her toward her boyfriend in the lobby, who claimed he had hurt his hip after a chair broke and was waiting for the manager. Trusting the situation was under control, the server returned to her other customers, only to realize later that the couple had disappeared without paying. It was her first case of dine-and-dash, and she later admitted she broke down crying while cleaning the grills afterward.
The manager was on her side
Her manager showed her the camera recording of the incident, which revealed that the customer had been purposely leaning on the chair, and his weight caused the chair to give out. He then pretended to lie on the floor, as if he had fallen and gotten injured. Due to this incident, the waitress had to clock out with just $170 after an exhausting 14-hour shift, the lowest among her fellow servers.
It's more serious than a prank
According to California Penal Code Section 537 PC and Shouse Law Group, dine-and-dash is a crime that can land the suspect in jail. Depending on the credit value of food and beverages, the person can be charged up to $1,000 and could get anywhere from six months to three years in jail. Another survey published in the Deviant Behavior journal surveyed 358 students to analyze “dine and dash.” They found that 35% of the total participants had dined and dashed at some point, with high prices and peer pressure emerging as the biggest reasons behind the behavior.
Readers jumped into the comments section to defend the waitress. u/Biffingston said, “You're too nice. Stop it. Empathy is a good thing. Until it's not. You did nothing to feel bad about; you can't control others.” u/bawdiepie remarked, “You know in other countries outside the US, a dine and dash is completely the responsibility of the restaurant, and trying to get an employee to pay for it is illegal.”
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