That deplorable specimen, a seemingly middle-class guy, had dined and dashed with us before. It wasn't until a server commented on the impeccable manners of the guest at table number 10 that I realized who he was. I recognized him, but couldn't immediately recall from where. He sat his stupid ass down at the same table he ran from last time. What happened: It was the second time this particular guy dined with us. 'I asked him for his shoes and threw them into the canal.' They'd rather take care of the issue themselves. The answers I got varied from "it rarely happens" to "we deal with it all the time" and "I wish those god-awful people would go straight to hell." But in all cases, it turns out, calling the police is about the last thing any of the restaurant owners would do. I spent a day biking around Amsterdam and asked employees in more than 20 different restaurants how they take on the challenge of non-paying customers. A third option: restaurants have their own, creative ways of dealing with freeloaders. Maybe it's too much of a hassle, or perhaps restaurant owners think it won't make much of a difference. NSZ is now urging restaurants in Belgium to go to the police every time they have to deal with someone who decides to dine and dash, but only 18 percent of all businesses actually oblige. Many of these criminals don't seem to realize that, or they simply don't care. Often, it's the business' cash register-or worse, out of the server's paycheck. I have the right to call them thieves: the money they neglect to pay has to come out of someone else's wallet. But catching them is still not easy, especially because the hospitality thieves are getting smarter and sneakier as time goes on. Restaurants and bars try to combat this by asking customers to pay up front or installing surveillance cameras. More and more freeloaders walk into a restaurant, fill their bellies with the finest food and drinks, and then sneak out without paying their bill. Recent research from Belgian food and beverage retail association NSZ shows that the amount of people who dine and dash has increased by a whopping 24 percent in the past year.
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