HOBOKEN AND BEYOND — A Paramus man may be having second thoughts about giving his number to a woman at a Hoboken bar last month, since police were able to track him down because of it and charge him with theft of services.
Police charged the 27-year-old man after a bar manager claimed he and a group of friends allegedly skipped out on a bar tab on Friday, March 19. The manager told police that the bar tab was $191.
According to the police report, while the men had been eating and drinking, the manager had observed one of them approach a group of women sitting nearby. So later, after the manager found out the men had apparently left without paying their bill, the manager asked the women if they knew the man who had come to their table. One woman said the man told her his name and offered his phone number, which the woman gave to the manager.
The manager called the number and the man answered, telling her that there had been a mix-up and that someone would return to settle the tab.
However, the manager told police that when the bill was not paid by the next day, the owner contacted the man again to arrange payment. But no one came to pay, and the bar was subsequently unable to contact the man again.
Police used the phone number and bar surveillance videos to track down the man and charge him.