MILFORD, Del. - Westside Restaurant, a small business of 25 years in Milford is seeing more and more instances of people leaving before paying their bill.
The latest instance of this was last week, but the owner of the restaurant said this happens at least five times a month.
"It was sad to see through the camera while they're waiting just to sneak out at the right minute... So that was upsetting. I could've posted their pictures but like I said I didn't want to. That's somebody's mom, somebody's grandmom..." said Owner Madula Kalesis.
According to the Milford Police Department, this does seem to be a common occurrence, but it is not often it is reported to them.
For the incidents that are reported to police: officers would conduct an investigation, identify who was involved, and they can be charged with theft or theft of services depending on the situation.
The River Lights Cafe across town has many precautions in place after also having this issue in the past,
"We usually have somebody stay out here with a cart so that there's always constant supervision and if not, there's always one of us coming in and out so that there's never people out here by themselves." said Kaley Phillips, a server at River Lights Cafe.
Kalesis hopes that customers will realize that not dining and dashing only hurts the small business,
"It might not be a lot. It may only be like 15 or 20 dollars but that's still 15/20 dollars that's still supporting our business."
The Milford Police Department encourages everyone to report incidents like this for investigation.