50-year-old man arrested after faking heart attack in 20 restaurants to avoid paying bill.
One of the restaurant owners said that he would order several glasses of White Label whiskey and a Russian salad before faking a heart attack.
Some of the restaurants the man duped included El Buen Comer and Sale&Pepe, in Alicante. The unnamed 50-year-old man reportedly scammed at least 20 eateries, the majority of them in Spain’s Costa Blanca region, by theatrically faking a heart attack. After ordering food and drinks, he would put on an outrageous theatrical performance, clutching his chest and pretending to faint on the floor. The scam worked like a charm until one establishment owner saw right through the man’s act and started other local restaurants photos of him warning them not to fall for his heart-attack routine.
The manager of El Buen Comer was quoted as saying by The Sun, “It was very theatrical, he pretended to faint and slumped himself down on the floor. We have sent his photo around to all the restaurants to try and stop him from striking again.”
A staff member at Sale&Pepe said, “We’ve all received a warning with his photo telling us to be careful and to not serve him anything.”
Last month, the Lithuanian man was at El Buen Comer, a restaurant in Alicante, enjoying some seafood paella and a few shots of whisky when the staff brought him the bill for 34.85 euros ($37). When the waiter left the table, he just got up and tried to leave, but he was stopped and notified that he still had to cover the bill. Visibly upset, the scammer said he was going to get the money from his hotel room, but the staff didn’t let him leave. It was at this point that he started faking a heart attack.
“It was very theatrical, he pretended to faint and slumped himself down on the floor,” the manager of El Buen Comer said. “We have sent his photo around to all the restaurants to try and stop him from striking again.”
