Rachel: Has anyone ever "dined and dashed"? I want to know. (duh)

Simone and I pulled a dine-n-dash in Vancouver at Swiss Chalet two summers ago. We were broke, and I didn't want to go to Swiss Chalet at all, but Simone was really craving chicken at the time. We went in, and I ordered a salad. It was fairly disappointing, and Simone's chicken could really only be described as poor. We decided that there was no way we could with good conscious pay for this low-grade meal, so we concocted a plan: Well, it wasn't really a plan, so much as a simple set of actions. Simone got up to 'go to the bathroom', and after two minutes, I did the same. I walked out the door, and then ran. We ran for about two blocks. The thing was that our waiter had been really really nice, and that made me feel a little bad. So before I ran, I left a five dollar bill on the table, and on the bill, I wrote:

"Dear Jeff. We're sorry. It's not your fault - you were an excellent waiter. But we will not be paying for this meal. Please keep this five dollars as a tip for yourself. Paul and Simone."

Also, one time I was dragged to Smitty's for a going away breakfast for a former roommate named Kelly, who was leaving for Ottawa. It's not that I didn't want to go for breakfast with her, it's that I didn't want to go to Smitty's, but what could I do? (Incidentally, Simone flat out decided not to go, because it was at Smitty's.) I went, I ordered pancakes, and they were horrible. I've never tasted a dryer, more air-filled pancake. It was like eating a plate of fluffy flour, and so again, I could not allow myself to pay money for that 'breakfast'. There were so many people at our table, and we were all paying separately, that while everyone else paid at the front, I just kind of loitered.. Eventually, I moved outside with the last few cheque-payers, and nodded when asked "Is everyone all settled up?" I never told anyone from that breakfast table. I kind of liked it being a secret.