A family dining at the Westlake Dave and Buster’s was enjoying dinner when they were approached by a man pretending to be the manager.
“I was actually writing the tip, getting ready to sign it and everything and the guy comes up to me and he’s like, 'hey man, I’m really sorry about them taking so long,'” said the man who did not want to be identified.
On Oct. 12, a stranger approached his table as he was signing for his bill. The man posed as the restaurant manager and apologized to the family for the poor restaurant service.
“He’s like, 'listen, I’ll give you this, there’s $30, you guys go use this and I’ll take 50 percent off your bill,'” he said.
The stranger, a slick talker, convinced the man he was working to improve Dave and Buster’s customer service, and that all he’d need was the customer's credit card to take 50 percent off the bill.
The family agreed and waited.
“And then at 9:22, which was what, 11 minutes later? I get a text saying I just spent $105 at Speedway,” he said.
The family’s bank sends text notifications whenever their card makes a transaction. They were notified almost immediately after that the crook made off with his card.
“As soon as I saw that I was like, he got me, he got me, I fell for it, he totally conned me.”
“You have to always go by the adage that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is,” said Lt. Jerry Vogel with the Westlake Police Department.
Westlake Police say the con-artist attempted to purchase another $800 worth of gift cards, but that purchase was denied.
“It’s very gutsy because it’s face to face and if someone calls you on it, now what do you do?” said Vogel.
If you have information that may help make an arrest, call Westlake police.
