A woman is back behind bars after failing to show up in court to answer to a charge of dining and dashing at a restaurant in The Villages.
Tara Leigh Clutter, 43, of Ocala, was being held without bond at the Lake County Jail following her arrest Sunday on a warrant charging her with failure to appear. A judge issued the warrant after Clutter skipped a court date in connection with her arrest last year after refusing to pay for a meal at a restaurant.
Clutter went to the Perkins restaurant on Bichara Boulevard in The Villages on Sept. 1 and consumed $29.27 in food and drink, according to an affidavit of probable cause from the Lady Lake Police Department. When she walked out without paying, restaurant workers tried to hand her a bill.
“I don’t need it,” she told them.
Clutter strolled out to the restaurant’s parking lot and got into a white Honda four-door sedan. The manager of the restaurant shot a photo of the license plate and turned it over to police. When the license plate was tracked to Clutter, a police officer showed Clutter’s driver’s license photo to the restaurant manager, who confirmed it was Clutter who had walked out without paying for the meal.
