What happens when a Florida Man goes into a Mexican restaurant and proceeds to drink vodkas all day long (16!) and then refuses to pay his tab? He gets arrested, goes to jail where he was probably held until the court told him he’s now on the hook for the bill plus court costs.
Meet Stephen Loftus. Seems to be your typical Florida Man who is capable of pulling a Florida Man move at any point in his life, probably multiple Florida Man moves that we’ll never know about.
From TCPalm.com:
Problem is, according to an arrest affidavit, Loftus, 54, couldn’t pay his bill at the Mexican restaurant in Vero Beach where the orders were made.
About 10:40 p.m. on Feb. 18, police went to the Ay! Jalisco restaurant in the 1900 block of U.S.1 where a manager said “Stephen” at the bar couldn’t settle his $105 bill.Loftus told investigators he was supposed to meet his friend, Mike, for lunch at 1:30 p.m. Mike, he said, was supposed to pick up the tab.
Of course Mike says Stephen is lying and he was never supposed to pick up the tab.
Look, some of the fault here falls on the Mexican restaurant. I’m not going triggered snowflake on you guys here, I’m just saying at some point the bartender has to get a sense that Stephen doesn’t have a pot to piss in. It’s sorta their fault for not making up some sort of “we’re on a shift change, would it be cool to close out the tab?” excuse. Seems pretty easy, especially after the guy pounds 8 vodkas. Maybe you want to see if he has a couple nickels to his name.
I’d also like to see a production chart for Stephen. How fast were these vodkas going down? I assume Stephen came out shooting like shooters do early in the day, pounding before the Mexicans caught on that he didn’t have money. Then at some point after the nightly news, probably during Wheel of Fortune at 7, they didn’t care that he was sucking down booze that he was never going to pay for.
You think this is Stephen’s first rodeo defrauding an innkeeper? Let’s go back to 2016:
