Cops: Waitress abducted by group that wouldn’t pay it’s bill

By Matt Petrillo

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    WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (KYW) — Take a look at these surveillance photos. Police say the suspects abducted and attacked a waitress over a dine-and-dash incident at a popular South Jersey diner.

Police say that waitress from the Nifty Fifty’s restaurant in Washington Township is suffering from a possible concussion and abrasions to her face and neck. Officers say she’s lucky she didn’t get more injured after a confrontation turned violent.

“She’s obviously traumatized by the event,” Washington Township Police Chief Patrick Gurcsik said.

Police say surveillance video from Saturday night shows a waitress in red confronting a group of alleged dine-and-dashers before they allegedly forced the waitress into their white Dodge Durango. That’s where police they assaulted her and then took off down Route 42.

“This is a brazen abduction, robbery, aggravated assault, possible kidnapping,” Gurcsik said.

Police say the incident happened outside the Washington Township Nifty Fifty’s restaurant after a group of people ate and left without paying their $70 bill.

“We’re asking for the public’s assistance in trying to help identify the owner of the vehicle and to go on our Facebook page and help identify the suspects in the photos. So there’s five individuals, three males and two females,” Gurcsik said.

Police also say the suspects eventually kicked out the victim a short distance away on the side of Route 42. She was able to walk back to Nifty Fifty’s.

The co-owner says dine-and-dashers here are far and few between.

“Our customers are great. This is just a really isolated incident,” Nifty Fifty’s co-owner Joe Donnelly said.

Now customers we talked to are hoping police catch those suspects.

“It’s sad but hopefully they find who did it and it’ll get a little better,” Allison Dowd said.

Meantime, officers encourage anyone who sees a crime to not intervene but instead try to be a good witness.

“Try and get a license plate obviously, try and be able to identify the accused and call 911. We don’t recommend chasing customers in the parking lots,” Gurcsik said.

The waitress is recovering today. Anyone with information is urged to contact police.

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