Restaurant: Customer Orders Several Drinks, Leaves Without Paying Bill

A Woodstock restaurant is warning other establishments of a young woman they say is making the rounds at various eateries and not paying her tab.

On Aug. 11 just before lunch, a woman walked into Papa P’s at 2295 Towne Lake Parkway and ordered several double shots of Jack Daniels with a Diet Doke on the side.

Co-owner Caron Catalan said she told her server to cut the customer off because that amount of alcohol was “too much, too fast.”

“We talked with her for a while,” she added, noting the woman later ordered food for herself and a to-go order for her boyfriend.

When her bill — which was over $50 — came back, the woman told the server she was going to step outside to smoke a cigarette. Instead, the woman allegedly got into her car and drove away.

Catalan said the car — either a white Toyota Camry or Tercel — was the only one at the restaurant at the time, so they are sure it was the vehicle the customer arrived in. She also left behind her wallet, which did not have identifying information such as a credit car or driver’s license, Catalan said.

“I was totally stunned when she didn’t come back,” she said, adding they were able to build a rapport with the woman.

Catalan said she has customers who routinely leave the restaurant momentarily and, for example, run to neighboring Kroger to pick up a prescription. But they always return, she added.

Papa P’s informed its followers of the incident on its Facebook page. As a result, Catalan said she’s had people with several restaurants who said the customer allegedly did the same thing at their establishments.

“The thing is she drinks too much and then drives drunk,” Catalan stated. “I am afraid she’ll kill herself or someone else.”

Catalan said she informed the Woodstock Police Department about the incident, and agency spokesperson Brittany Duncan said detectives are following up on leads at this time.

The woman is described in her mid 20s, has medium-length dark hair and is ”average” size and height, Catalan noted.

(Photo: still footage from surveillance camera inside Papa P’s shows the customer who allegedly ran up a tab and left without paying her bill. Other restaurants have contacted Papa P’s and said the same customer has allegedly done the same thing at their establishments. Credit: Papa P’s).