Do you know this man? Dine-and-dash dater strikes again in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES -- A handsome man who attracts women online, then dines and dashes while on the date, has struck again, CBS Los Angeles reports.
As a woman scrolls through her text messages with Paul Gonzales, she says she thought she was just going on a typical blind date.
“He said, ‘Are you available at all this weekend for dinner?’ I said, ‘Yes, how about Sunday,’” the woman, who did not want to be identified, told CBS Los Angeles.
Another woman says they met on the dating app Bumble, though he called himself Dave Gonzales, and has since taken down his profile. They met at BJ’s in Pasadena, he ordered right away.
“A glass of Pinot, a Caesar salad with a side of shrimp, a steak, and a baked potato.”
She says after he scarfed down most of his meal he got up.
“He left maybe half a baked potato and then received a phone call and said ‘I need to take this call,’” the woman recalled.
She says he never returned, leaving her with the bill.
“The waiter came back and said, ‘He’s not out there, is this a first date?’ And I said, ‘Yes, this is a first blind date,’ and he said, ‘He’s gone.’”
Shocked, she went online and discovered previous stories about Gonzales and how he had dined and dashed last summer, leaving at least two other women with large bills.
“I was shocked that anybody would do this. And I even texted him, ‘Is everything OK?’ ... and obviously he never responded,” she said.
Police also say he committed a “snip-and-ditch” when security video caught him leaving a hair salon with his smock on after getting a cut and color last year.
According to the L.A. County District Attorney’s office, 44-year-old Gonzales has two bench warrants out for his arrest after not showing up to court for petty theft and driving without a valid license. Records show he’s already been to jail several times for misdemeanor arrests.
One of the women says the restaurant was nice enough to comp Gonzales’ meal. She just had to pay for his glass of wine.