Posted on 01/25/2013 6:58:33 AM PST by jimbo123
Welcome to New York, pal — now go to jail.
An Italian tourist spent his second night in the city behind bars after staff at an upscale East Side steakhouse called cops when he claimed he left his wallet at a friend’s place.
Graziano Graziussi, a 43-year-old lawyer from Naples, is a regular at Smith & Wollensky — but this time, barely 24 hours into his latest two-week stay in New York, he realized he didn’t have his wallet on him when a waiter presented him with the $208 bill Monday night.
“I forgot my wallet,” the clean-cut Graziussi told the waiter — but the staff at the Third Ave. eatery wasn’t buying it, even after Graziussi offered some pricey collateral while he went to get the cash about 30 blocks uptown.
“I was going to leave my iPhone,” he said. “I suggested they bring a bus boy with me. . . . It would have been an easy trip.”
But the general manager called police instead.
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
If you going to go;go big!
That will happen in quite a few places. I’ve heard of the local Denny’s doing it to people.
A lot of people use this as a tactic to skip out on their bill.
If that is the full and true story the guy offered collateral of some sort, and would go accompanied to get the cash, then the restaurant are a bunch of hard asses. No wonder less and less people want to visit the USA these days. Its OK, many people don’t want foreigners visiting, but it just means less revenue for everybody stateside, particularly the tourism industry. I swear sometimes it might be renamed the United States of Overreaction (I feel this just about every time I hear the Marine Corps-type yelling of TSA at common citizens). I’d never eat at such a restaurant. A working phone is no small thing to leave behind.
At a gas station in town, someone pumped a full tank of gas and had forgotten their wallet so they left their child while they ran home to get it. Two hours later, the gas station called the cops. When they finally tracked the woman down, she told them she got busy on something else and forgot.
Must have been the middle child.
Regarding the Wal-Mart of cuisine, Dennys, sure, folks you might see on C.O.P.S., — well, I’ll buy that perhaps. There are a lot of scumbags out there wanting something for free and I can envision such a trick, particularly in this economy and this entitled Obama society. I just do not see it in a foreign tourist coming all the way to the US for a free meal...particularly first time here and all.
The article says he was a regular customer, which makes it even weirder.
I agree with you completely. The article implied the man was a regular at this restaurant when he came to NYC. Don’t you think the staff would have recognized that fact and allowed him to get the money? I don’t think this man was intending to stiff the restaurant on the bill. Of course he should have brought his wallet but this was a huge overreaction by this restaurant I believe.
First of all I would have guessed he was Sicilian. But...
It says he was a regular. They wouldn't let him go get his wallet, even after he offered collateral and to be accompanied?
“The article implied the man was a regular at this restaurant when he came to NYC. Don’t you think the staff would have recognized that fact and allowed him to get the money? I don’t think this man was intending to stiff the restaurant on the bill. Of course he should have brought his wallet but this was a huge overreaction by this restaurant I believe.”
And maybe the article’s working hard to create that impression, telling us the offender is “clean-cut”.
In the middle of the dinner shift, I am supposed to tell a paid employee to abandon his work station to accompany a deadbeat on a wild goose chase?
Give me a break.
And what am I going to do with someone else's phone as collateral? Sell it on the black market? Go to the service provider and explain to them that I want it deactivated from its current user without his authorization and transferred to me? Which restaurant employee gets the used phone? Do they all share it? Not to mention that a used previous generation iPhone with no plan costs less online that the $200+ check this guy skipped out on.
Come on.
No wonder less and less people want to visit the USA these days.
If you look at the statistics, more and more people visit the US every year. Don't invent "facts" to bolster your weak argument.
And if an American tried to pull a similar stunt in Italy, he'd get the cops called on him too.
And it would have absolutely zero impact on any rational American's desire to visit Italy.
I can't believe the sob stories FReepers fall for sometimes.
He should have checked to see if he had his wallet before he ordered anything.
“It’s so crowded that nobody goes there any more.”
(I think this is one of Yogi’s)
And how would I as a restaurant owner know or care who the person was or where they were from and whether they had been here before.
Plenty of “high class” wealthy people are thieves.
Yes it sucks, and they are getting plenty of bad press over it. As a business owner who has had customers bail on their bill I can’t say I blame them too much.
Let’s just say alcohol was involved.
“I need to get some gas to go to the drink house but I need a babysitter for little LaPancreas. Oh wait.....”.
Especially if, as the story said, the man was a regular at the restaurant.
A few years back, my wife and I were traveling and stopped at a motel in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I left my wife in the motel room and went to fill the gas tank. Forgot my wallet and didn’t even think about it until the gas tank was full. I was a couple of miles from the motel and figured I’d have to walk back to get my wallet but the attendant told me to just drive back, get it and then come and pay for my gas, no collateral, just my word. Boy, did I ever stiff that guy!
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Just kidding, I went back and paid for my gas.
If the guido’s story is legit then the friend could have been called and asked to bring the wallet.
I noticed that too. Most people reading the article don't realize that this is not really a neighborhood restaurant.
It's a steakhouse that caters to a business crowd - I've probably been there 50 or so times, just because it's a "default" option for client dinners, and I doubt the staff would recognize me.
The place is generally packed, turnover is high, and most parties are 6 or more. Not a place where you linger wistfully with a bottle of wine and chat with the waiters - it's a fast-paced joint.
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