Cheeky customers left a restaurant without paying for their food after a fire alarm rang out.
The 20 tables did not return to the restaurant at the Livingston Designer Outlet Shopping Centre in Scotland to pay for their meals when the alarm stopped.
39 groups were eating at the Hot Flame all-you-can-eat world cuisine buffet when a fire alarm sounded at a nearby Pizza Hut, reports Edinburgh Live.
Customers were instructed to wait outside the complex until it was safe to return inside – but only 19 groups did so, resulting in nearly £1,000 in lost earnings for the restaurant.
Restaurant manager Sid Gavan, said: “While I was waiting to go back inside I recognised a customer getting into a BMW and just driving away like nothing had happened.
“They didn’t pay a penny.
“Then when we all returned inside I noticed immediately that while 39 of our tables had been full before the alarm, only 19 tables had people sitting at them. That’s like less than 50 per cent.
“I’m really angry to be very frank. I would never behave like that. We have regular customers and ones who come in every now and then.
“I couldn’t have predicted the ones who didn’t pay. It was a mixture of families, young people, grandparents, posh-looking people, all sorts.
“I made a point of speaking to those who did return and thanked them personally.”
