A man accused of repeatedly walking out on bar tabs across Southwest Florida appears to have developed a recognizable routine: a few beers, plenty of conversation and, often, a crossword puzzle left behind.
Restaurant employees eventually began comparing stories on social media, where the same blue sweatshirt, drinking pattern and abandoned puzzles helped turn what looked like isolated unpaid tabs into something more recognizable.
That online trail caught up with Ronald Wladich on Oct. 1, when employees at a Fort Myers-area pizzeria realized the customer sitting at their bar appeared to be the same man other businesses had been warning about.
By the time he left that restaurant — once again leaving a crossword behind — Lee County deputies were waiting nearby.
Right At The Bar
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Julia Jurkas, manager of RonDao’s Pizzeria & Sports Bar, told WINK News that her husband was sitting at the bar Thursday morning when he recognized Wladich from a Facebook post he had seen only hours earlier.
The staff called the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and continued acting normally while deputies positioned themselves outside.
“We were all playing it cool, just watching it go down,” staff member Malinda Buchmann told WINK. “It was wild. We feel like we were filming a movie.”
Jurkas said deputies remained in contact with her husband as the customer eventually got up and walked out, leaving his crossword behind.
Deputies detained Wladich outside.
The Same Pattern
RonDao’s was hardly the first restaurant where workers believed they had encountered him.
WINK confirmed at least four other Southwest Florida restaurants where employees said Wladich had left without settling his bill, including Buckett’s Wings & More, where Angie Lessy said he arrived around 9 p.m. the night before his arrest.
Lessy said he drank several beers, repeatedly went outside to smoke and disappeared around last call. He left half a beer and what appeared to be a pack of cigarettes behind, convincing her at first that he intended to return.
Only later did she realize the cigarette pack was empty.
“He got me,” Lessy told WINK.
Another account emerged at the British Open Pub in Bonita Springs, where Gulf Coast News reported that a customer accused of the same pattern ordered four beers totaling $47 while working on a crossword puzzle.
Bartender Shawn Philbin said the man got up as if he were heading to the restroom but never came back to pay.
The outlet said three additional restaurants in Cape Coral and Fort Myers also identified the same man as someone who had skipped a tab.
One More Charge
WINK reported that Wladich’s arrest report lists a charge of defrauding a food or lodging establishment for less than $1,000.
The arrest produced a second allegation unrelated to an unpaid restaurant bill.
According to WINK’s account of the report, Wladich was also charged with DUI after deputies accused him of riding a bicycle into a Wendy’s parking lot while intoxicated.
Publicly available Lee County booking information confirms that a Ronald Wladich was booked on Oct. 1, although the underlying sheriff’s office arrest report was not available through the public sources reviewed for this article.
WINK reported that his bond was set at $750.
For Jurkas, the arrest ended a situation that had spread from one small business to another until restaurant workers began sharing enough information to recognize the pattern.
“Mom-and-pop places like this build our community,” she told WINK, “so we’re just happy that he’s caught.”