Dinner Tab
Thirty days for Del Taco scammer. UK Telegraph:
A man who tricked a fast food restaurant into giving him 15 dollars (just over seven pounds) worth of free food and then posted a video of the prank on YouTube entitled “How to Scam Del Taco” has been jailed for 30 days.
Robert Echeverria, 32, and two 18-year-old friends videotaped themselves performing the scam in a seven-minute film described as a Nickel’ndime (sic) production.
“Check this out,” Echeverria says as he waves a page torn from the yellow pages and his mobile phone at the camera.
“(I’m) about to call them and get some free food.”
The shaven-headed, tattooed Echeverria, who police described as a gang member weighing over 35 stone, then calls a branch of Del Taco, a Mexican chain food restaurant, in Rialto, 50 miles east of Los Angeles.
Pretending to be a company CEO called Robert Kennedy, Echeverria describes to a manager named Rosie how an order he placed earlier in the day had been messed up - he received sour cream, which he does not eat, and iced tea instead of Coke “with light ice”.
He says he has called the chain’s head office and spoken to “corporate” about the problem, adding: “I’m a CEO of my own company so I thought I would call the CEO of your company and get things straight, because that’s just the way our communities should work together.”
Rosie asks him to repeat his order - seven tacos, a large order of fries, two Cokes and two quesadillas with extra chicken - and says she will have it waiting for him.
Echeverria then explains he cannot collect the order personally as he has “salmonella”, which is “probably not from you guys”, so is sending in his two “sons”.
A few minutes later the trio are shown sitting in Echeverria’s SUV munching on their free food.
“See what happens?” Echeverria says. “Food, free drinks… I guess that’s how you do it.”
The YouTube video had today been viewed more than 40,000 times.
Among those to view it, however, were the Rialto police, who were tipped off by a local resident who saw it.
And that’s how you do it. Free food.
After pleading guilty to misdemeanor burglary, Echeverria received a sentence of 30 days in jail, three years probation and was banned from the Rialto Del Taco.
“I tried to get him to stay away from all Del Tacos, but the judge said just the one,” Doug Schaller, the deputy district attorney said.
In fairness, it looks like the guy has a serious food problem. He’s a victim.
Full Del Taco vid report here. This is another real American story. You might think this one doesn’t have a happy ending. But for the next 30 days, he does get to do what he appears to do best … sit on his large ass eating free food and watching TV … on the county dime, also he gets his 15 minutes.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:23 pm on Thursday, March 20, 2008
2 Responses to “Dinner Tab”
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March 21st, 2008 at 1:42 am
35 stone = 490 pounds
March 21st, 2008 at 9:42 am
I’m assuming that he posted it on YouTube to get attention, and in this sense he succeeded beyond his wildest dreams.
He’d probably say that 30 days in the pokey for a non-felony was worth it.