Horde of 120 people dine and run at two Spanish restaurants within a week, racking up almost $20,000 bill

You’ve heard of hit-and-run. Now, it’s time to learn about eat-and-run.

A group of 120 people were reported to have racked up hefty bills at not one, but two Spanish restaurants within a week.

The first incident took place at a restaurant in northwestern Spain on Feb 27, where the group ate about S$3310 worth of food to allegedly celebrate the christening of two boys.

They had paid a deposit of around S$1350 to dine at the restaurant, but abruptly left right before the cake was brought out, said the restaurant owner via El Pais.

He said:

“It was a matter of a minute and I couldn’t do anything to stop them because they had organized and they ran out in a stampede.”

The second incident took place a few days later, 20km away from the first restaurant. It was allegedly a wedding banquet, and about 160 guests showed up.

After consuming almost S$15000 of food, the guests disappeared within the span of “five minutes”, said the owner of the restaurant via BBC.

The owner of the restaurant where the second incident happened said:

"Usually people leave over time, and you expect someone to come to talk to you and say they will settle the bill the next morning or something. But they didn't say anything, they just disappeared."

According to El Pais, a 48-year-old Romanian man has been arrested in connection with the case.