Of course you could go to jail.
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Brothers Accused Of Dine-And-Dash Spree Through Cleveland’s Finest Restaurants
CLEVELAND -- Several downtown Cleveland restaurants recently noticed a pattern: the same two men dining and dashing.
Bold and brazen, they struck back to back, before a fed up manager took one of them down with a strategically placed foot.
It was the Facebook picture that was shared around the Cleveland restaurant world. Dine-and-dasher Matt Gareau, pinned down under the foot of Johnny's General Manager David Flowers.
Here's how it all went down: Wednesday. Bar Cento on 25th street. Two guys ring up a $200 tab. They said they were going to have a smoke, but instead, they dined and dashed.
Across the street to Crop, Chef Owner Steve Schimoler has surveilance video of Matt and Scott Gareau ringing up a $160 tab at the bar before they left.
"Top shelf champagne, fois grois, short ribs," described Schimoler. "All in, like they are really super foodies. Said they were gonna have a cigarette. They take off. We immediately connected the dots. We looked at both videos, immediately identified these two brothers."
The very next day, Thursday, three more restaurants were hit up by suspects matching the same description.
This time it was Blue Point, Butcher and the Brewer and almost $300 racked up at at RED.
So Schimoler posted a "heads up" for other restaurants to watch for the brazen brothers.
"It worked instantly because the word got around quickly," said Schimoler.
Friday at lunch hour, David Flowers at Johnny's sees the Facebook post.
"About 10 minutes later I look up, and there was Matt Gareau," said Flowers.
In what Schimoler predicted would be perfect form, Flowers said, "Sure enough when he saw an opportunity, he tried to bolt for the door. He said he didn't have any money, he was going to meet his aunt, and he'd be back later. "
Schimoler laughs out loud at that.
"Six times in three days! And to me, that can be summed up in two words: B. S.," said Schimoler.
Schimoler showed up to Johnny's in time to snap this now heavily shared picture on Facebook.
"Yes, that was my foot on Matt and he kept trying to get up and leave and I had already hurt my shoulder so I couldn't do anything else except hold him down with my foot. Next time just ask me for a sandwich I'd be happy to help you out," said Flowers.
Schimoler, isn't as sunshiny.
"Took a real set of cojones to pull this off," said Schimoler.
Then there's this little insult to injury, both the Gareau brothers used to work at Johnny's.
Turns out they had already been banned from Johnny's little bar.
"Well, they get three free meals in jail, so if that was the goal to make sure you get free meals for awhile, you're good," said Schimoler. "Because you're certainly not getting hired in Cleveland restaurants ever again."
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2015 10:23PM by scanman1.