LogFAQs > #880280402

"There is. You get banned from the establishment and they will no longer serve you, plus they will probably call the police to have you arrested for your prior crime. Unless you literally never stay very long in one place and always go to a different restaurant each time you eat you will run out of places to dine and dash from pretty quick."

That is the thing, even in smaller suburbs I have lived in, there are over 50 places to eat, and honestly you like need to travel a few blocks usually to find more. You could rotate through towns and never eat at the same place twice in a year easily, but remain within 20-30 miles of your starting point.

Even if you did go back in say a month or two, your chances of having the same server etc, or being remembered (especially if you just left and there was no confrontation) would be really small (and that is saying the same employees are even there still).

This has always kinda confused me. I have seen people arrested for this before, but, thinking back on it, I think they WANTED to be arrested (as in they told the waitress they could not pay and waited for the cops).

Last time I saw this was like 10+ years ago in Alameda CA, at a dinner, and the guy just told them he couldn't pay and waited for the cops. I think he wanted somewhere warm to spend the night. It was sad actually.

Point is, I don't see how these companies are preventing homeless people from doing this all the time. It's not like they have anything to loose, and not all of them won't do it out of morals/principles etc (especially if they are really hungry).

As far as cameras, I know alot of convienence stores have them, but I worked at a safeway (admittedly 20 years ago or so), and they did not have cameras covering the isles etc. Someone could easily have just gone in, eaten a bunch of food, and then left. That was before they had all the sandwich/oriental/hot food bars etc even (which is even easier for you to get away with because alot of people pay for them right there, and then eat at the tables nearby). Heck now most safeways have a starbucks with tables as well, you could get the hot food from the safeway counter, travel over to the starbucks area and eat it, and then leave and nobody would know you never paid.

I'm sure if it happened a ton, eventually the loss of merchandise would be discovered and prevention methods would be taken (for isntance you have to pay for the hot food at the bar, before it is given to you). Those are not currently in effect though, which makes me wonder....why are the homeless not doing things like this? It would be great if it was because they think it is wrong etc, but I don't believe that.
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