Fiona Govan
A GROUP of young people attempted to run off without paying a whopping bill in a Barcelona restaurant but failed after leaving while several members of the group were in the toilet.
The group of around thirty young people ran up a bill of more than €1,000 at a restaurant in L’Almetilla del Valles, outside Barcelona.
But rather than settle their bill, they collectively decided to conduct what is colloquially known as a ‘sinpa’ in Spanish – from ‘sin pagar’ meaning without paying.
However as the bulk of the group ran from the restaurant, jumped in cars parked outside and sped off, they failed to realise that several members of the group had been left behind in the toilet.
Six people emerged from the bathroom to face irate restaurant staff who refused to let them leave and called the police.
By the time the Catalan police force Mossos d’Esquadra arrived those left behind had decided to stump up for the entire bill themselves.
“They thought they could get away with just paying their own share of the bill but in the end they had to pay out for everyone else too,” explained Candido Martinez, manager of the roadside restaurant La Masía de Can Sous.
“We had a tremendous scare as €1,000 in the hospitality industry right now is a lot and we felt like fools,” he told Spain’s Cuatro al Dia programme adding that was nothing compared to the look on the face of those who came out of the bathroom to realise their friends had fled.
“It took them less than a minute for them all to jump into their cars and speed away as if it was a car rally,” he said.
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