Some people bring wallets to restaurants to pay for their meals, but one British man brought a rat. According to the Guardian, Christopher Baker wanted a free meal so badly he brought and released a rat inside of a restaurant. Baker — who owner Kevin Smith says was already banned from the restaurant — snuck in and grabbed a solo meal at Borneo Bistro in England this past Valentine's Day. Fox News writes that Baker decided that he didn't want to pay the £7.25 ($10.75 USD) his dinner cost, so he pulled a rat from his pocket and set it on the floor, and "frantically" called out for the waitstaff. Baker then demanded a refund for his meal.
However, something didn't add up to Smith, who says the rat was "suspiciously clean" and looked like a pet: "It looked like it had just had its hair done." Baker also claimed that the rat had bitten his finger, too, but footage of the incident (caught on the restaurant's CCTV cameras) showing otherwise motivated him to retract that claim.
Baker plead guilty to fraud last week and was ordered to perform community service, repay the restaurant $10.75 for his meal, and give Smith a £60 ($90 USD) victim surcharge. Instead of receiving a free meal, Baker ended up forking over nearly $100 because of his stunt.
While Smith is glad Baker is being punished, he's still upset over the incident: "These people have no place in society when there are people like us paying taxes. I have staff and pay their salaries. If I had to close they would lose their jobs." As for the rat, pest control released the animal into the wild.
Over the years, people have done all kinds of sketchy things for free food. In 2013, the publisher of a Philadelphia-area blog sent an email to local restaurants begging for a free Christmas Eve dinner for her family in exchange for coverage on her site, two posts her Facebook account, and five pictures Instagram page which had a mere 559 followers at the time. Check out the video of the rat incident below: