Official News page 10

REAL LIFE NEWS: FACEBOOK HELPS CATCH BILL-DODGER

by Hazed

If you own a restaurant, you must always dread the thought of a party of diners who eat and drink lavishly and then scarper without baying the bill. When this happened to one Australian restaurateur, he set out to find the bill-dodgers, using Facebook and some good old fashioned sleuthing skills.

Peter Leary, of up-market establishment Seagrass in Melbourne, Australia, was faced with an unpaid bill totalling $520 after five diners "worked their way expertly through the menu, ordered and drank fine wines," tucked into lavish desserts, and finally snuck out using the excuse that they were just going outside to smoke a cigarette. After they failed to return and settle up, Leary remembered that "when the group arrived, one of them had asked about one of our waitresses who was not working that night."

When the absent waitress came into work, Leary described the miscreant, and she was able to name him. Leary immediately ran the name through Facebook and found him, pictured with his girlfriend - who had also been in the non-paying dinner party. The site also gave his place of employment, another local restaurant. Leary was furious that he'd been stiffed by workers from his own industry, so he raced over to the other eaterie and confronted the manager, who promised swift action.

A couple of hours later, the manager showed up at Seagrass, dragging the culprit along with him, where he "not only paid the bill, but left a generous tip for staff". Later Leary was told that he had been dismissed from his job. Quite right too!

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