Students accused of bailing on tab

When employees of the Perkins restaurant on Poplar Avenue at Highland Street saw three University of Memphis students Sept. 19, they called the police. The staff members had said the trio walked out on a $77 tab the previous weekend, but the students said they were not at the establishment when the dine-and-dash occurred.

Senior exercise and sports science major Nicol Castillo said she felt something was wrong when the servers gave them "weird looks."

Castillo said she and five other friends came in for something to eat at 3 a.m. after spending time downtown. After her friends were seated and everyone had ordered, Castillo left to take a friend to her dorm.

When she came back to the restaurant, she said their waitress asked if she had been there the weekend before. Castillo, who had eaten at a restaurant called The Happy Mexican the weekend before, said no and that she had receipts to prove it.

"The servers started whispering and being rude," Castillo said.

She said another waitress refused to give the table silverware even though she had some in her apron pocket.

Tommy, a junior business major who asked to have his last name omitted, was one of the accused students. He said he was in Collierville the night that the Perkins employees said he walked out on his check.

"It was kind of awkward because a bunch of the servers sat and watched us the whole time," he said.

When they got to the counter to pay their ticket, Castillo said the security guard told them they could not leave until the police got there.

Castillo, a waitress at Chili's, said she would never walk out on a check at another restaurant because people have walked out on her before.

Castillo, Tommy and a third student waited as four police cars pulled up to the restaurant. The officers scanned their IDs.

"The cops didn't believe us either," Castillo said. "They told us to just not come back because the staff would be watching us from now on."

Derick Bradley, general manager of this Perkins location, said he was not there that night but had been told the students left without paying on a busy night at the restaurant.

"People walk out all the time," Bradley said.

He said three different people, including a server and the security guard on duty the night in question, identified the students.

Amanda Maxwell, senior education major, was present Sept. 19 but was not accused of wrongdoing.

She said the servers were rude and ignored them.

"It was an experience that made me never want to go back to a Perkins ever again," she said.

Maxwell said she felt that Perkins should have handled the situation in a more professional way instead of allowing them to sit down, eat and then pay before mentioning the problem.

Tommy said they were all in shock "because it was all so dumb" and that the guard was "being a jerk" to Castillo.

Castillo said the servers watched as the police talked to them and "snickered the whole time."

Justin Bowen, a sophomore who said he has eaten at Perkins a few times, said if he were in the same predicament and knew he had not done anything wrong, he would have wanted "more substantial proof than eyewitness accounts."

Castillo and Tommy have been in contact with the area manager since the incident.

Tommy said the manager called from a restricted number and gave "somewhat of an apology" but that the story of three people walking out had changed to two people walking out, with one of the two hitting the guard that night.

"He said he would keep me updated," Tommy said.

Castillo said she is no longer comfortable going to the Perkins on Poplar Avenue at Highland Street.

"I just want an apology for the situation," she said.