Staffers at a restaurant in The Villages helped track down a diner who skipped out on an unpaid tab.
Emanuel Joseph Maldonado, 19, of Summerfield, was eating with two women at about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Cody’s Original Roadhouse at Lake Sumter Landing, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. Their bill totaled $66.66.
After they finished eating, an older woman in the trio left the restaurant. Then a younger woman left, but said she was going to get money from the older woman to pay the bill. Then Maldonado left the restaurant, and did not pay the tab. Restaurant staffers got the license plate number of his red sedan and called law enforcement.
The older woman returned to the restaurant and paid her portion of the bill. She identified Maldonado as a friend of her daughter.
A deputy found Maldonado about an eighth of a mile from the restaurant. The restaurant manager went to the location where Maldonado was detained and provided a positive identification.
He was arrested on a charge of obtaining food with intent to defraud. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center. Bond was set at $10,000.
He has a previous record of arrests.