Heroic Business Owner Has Been Posting Videos of Scumbags Who Dine & Dash From His Restaurant

It's obviously not been the greatest week for the proud people who own and operate America's restaurants. They've been terribly misrepresented by one of their own. No matter how good his taste in clothing may be:

Well no matter how arrogant and loathsome some restaurateurs may act, no matter how terrible their business sense, no matter how bad they look stretching their smedium, otherwise tasteful shirts over their distended bellies and into their belted jeans, they're not all bad. The vast majority of that demographic are hard working, honest, and industrious people. Who appreciate other self-made individuals, don't overuse parmesean under any circumstances, and don't believe everything they read in the NY Times. 

Take for instance, this heroic figure:

Who is doing the work of the angels at his place in Tampa:

Source - The owner of Florida restaurant Rick's on the River has taken a unique approach to dealing with the growing problem of 'dine and dash' customers. 

Ken Brackins, a second-generation owner of the Tampa establishment, installed 16 security cameras outside the establishment around two years ago and is now shaming customers into paying their bill by sharing footage of them on Facebook.

The system seems to be working, with Brackins catching nearly a dozen dashers who eventually paid their bill -  with many begging him to delete the videos. 

He told DailyMail.com: 'We believe it's been a deterrent for those that have been caught. They're embarrassed and hopefully won't do it again in the future.' …

In the latest video posted last week, an employee confronts a woman in a Mercedes in the parking lot over an unpaid beer tab. Accompanied by circus music, the video provides a closeup of her face and captures her license plate.

I deeply regret that I can't post any of the videos here, but the technology doesn't allow for it. Instead we'll just have to resort to Theater of the Mind. And in my head, it's glorious. 

Stealing in all it's forms is abhorrent. The Almighty Himself wrote down just 10 Commandments, and that one made the list, so you know it's a mortal sin. But there's stealing, and then there's stealing from a restaurant. Anyone who Chews & Screws - which is the Masshole term for I grew up on - belongs in the inner circle of Dante's Inferno. Frozen in the icy lake where they keep all the mutineers and those who betrayed a trust, staring into Judas' butthole for all eternity. 

Restaurants not only operate on a razor thin margin, those people work their fingers to the bone. So when you hit the bricks playing getaway music and throwing a bunch of gravel as you peel out from the parking lot, you're not stealing from some megacorporation big box store. Which again, is dead wrong. No, you're stealing from working people who rely on tips to keep the lights on at home. Someone who just gave you service, no less. You might as well break into the server's house and steal their kids' milk and cereal because it's the same effect. 

Ken Brackins is obviously not the first restaurant owner to think of this. And should by no means be the last. Sometimes listening to a true crime podcast, I'll catch myself wondering how anyone can pull off a decent homicide any more in a world of DNA evidence, blood splatter experts, cell phone records, geo tracking, and above all, cameras covering practically every square inch of dry land on the planet. So eliminating chewing and screwing ought to be as simple as shelling out for a dozen or so security cameras and having the will to humiliate the vile, wretched troglodytes who skip out on their tabs. To turn all social media into a cyber version of the stockade in the middle of the town square. Then let the rest of us pelt them with virtual rocks and garbage until their kind ceases to operate. Put them out of business before they do it to you. 

As far as them begging to have the videos taken down, like that hag in the brand new Mercedes? I'd agree to it only if they get down on their lousy, stinking hands and knees, lay their putrid bellies flat on the ground, and slither all around my establishment and beg me for forgiveness once they've completed the circle of slime on the pavement. And even then I'd make them tip my staff 100% of the bill. 

Restaurant owners of the world, unite. You are not Dragon Pizza.