You believe it is acceptable to steal from a restaurant when you have a large (by that restaurants’s definition) party and there is a mandatory gratuity for your party which is spelled out on the menus?
Regardless of the belief about tips, no one has the right to kidnap another over money. If someone owes someone money you are claiming they have the right to take them hostage. Don’t think so.
If anyone is stealing money it is the restaurant. They claim they have the right to a tip regardless of the service performed, service which usually sucks in larger groups. I NEVER attend a restaurant that demands a tip on larger groups when I am in a group. We’ll simply go to individual tables or get separate checks.
And restaurants wonder why their patronage is dropping.