‘Adam” is a waiter’s nightmare. The 35-year-old accountant, who lives in Brooklyn and asked that his real name not be used, has been known to skip out on the check at restaurants. Once he and three friends racked up a $300 tab at B.B. King’s in Times Square, then stepped outside for a cigarette. It wasn’t until they saw a pedicab passing by that they decided the night’s bill would be on the house. Explaining his occasional adventures in the criminal world, Adam shrugs and says, “Sometimes you’re drunk or, I don’t know . . . ”
Eating in a restaurant and leaving without paying the tab — known in police parlance as “theft of service” — rose almost 20 percent in the city last year, up from 315 arrests in 2009 to 376 in 2010, according to the NYPD. Of course, those numbers don’t include the many scofflaws who successfully “lick and split.”
According to industry vets, it’s frequently older, professional-looking types who are breaking for the border — whether for the thrill of getting something for free or simply because of an overblown sense of entitlement.