A pub landlord was left to foot £114 food bill after a family feasted at the boozer and then left without paying.
The family-of-six tucked into a Sunday lunch and extra side dishes washed down with a round of drinks at the Sun Inn in Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire.
Staff at the village pub are now warning other businesses in the hospitality industry which is still recovering from repeat lockdowns and closures during the pandemic, reports Nottinghamshire Live.
They said they are not the first pub in the area to be targeted after another pub less than four miles away was left with a whopping £330 unpaid bill.
“A heads up to all hospitality venues in the local area,” managers at the Sun Inn wrote on Facebook.
“We had a walkout at lunchtime, a couple with four children. They have been reported to the police.
“Please be careful as we are not the first pub in the area this week.”
The White Horse Inn in nearby Barnby Moor was left with a £330 unpaid bill on March 8 when two families left the pub “like a bomb site.”
It was said that the four adults and their four children did a runner after ordering gorging on tomahawk steaks, cocktails, vodka and soft drinks.
The table of eight arrived at around 7.30pm and vanished 90 minutes later.
Staff at the pub said that the diners were intimidating workers and police are investigating the incident.
The owner said it could not have come at a worse time as the business is still recovering from the Covid lockdown.
“It is just ridiculous,” he said.
“One of them distracted the member of staff by standing at the bar out of sight of the door.
“He was ordering another drink while the ladies in the group marched their children out, one under each arm, and bundled them into a couple of cars.
“Then they waited until the last guy exited and shot off.
The landlord said he has “never seen anything like it” in the decade he has worked in the pub trade.
“It was just like a pack of bears had been in,” he said.
“The children were running around the restaurant, running up to people’s tables, falling over things.
“And then they have left bowls of food upturned on the floor.”
He went on to explain how prices are going up with wholesale beer rising by almost 15p per pint this year.
“We are going to try to soak that all up, and we will try and fight all of that, and then people are going to do that,” he added.
“It is not very helpful.”