Most people who order a shot of rum and skip out on the bill might get a stern talking-to, be banned from the restaurant, or perhaps earn themselves a photo on the wall of shame. Richard James Scott’s Saturday morning in Miami reportedly went several steps beyond that, ending with police using a Taser just outside of a Rolls-Royce that didn’t belong to him.
Ugo Patierno, chief operations manager of Primo’s Italian Restaurant on North Bayshore Drive, told local reporters that Scott ordered a shot of Bacardi rum before running off. Patierno said Scott later provided a credit card that didn’t work before telling him to charge the drinks to his hotel room. The room number he gave? 666, reported Local 10. The room information was also reportedly bogus. That combination might work in a horror movie pitch meeting, but it did not fly at a hotel front desk.
The payment dispute kicked off a prolonged back-and-forth with police before Scott eventually got up and walked out of the restaurant. Somewhere in there, Scott reportedly told officers he was the son of God, which is certainly one way to try to talk your way out of a bar tab, though it has never once worked in recorded history.
Once outside, things went from strange to genuinely concerning. Scott reportedly approached a Rolls-Royce that wasn’t his and tried to get inside. That’s when officers deployed a Taser. Video captured police using the Taser on Scott at least three times before two officers moved in and placed him in handcuffs.
A Two-Hour Ordeal for Restaurant Staff
Patierno described Scott as combative with both staff and customers, saying he cursed at police and appeared ready to fight both Patierno and his wife. “I was scared actually. Because the guy was a big guy. I don’t like fights,” Patierno told reporters at WSVN.
That’s a completely fair reaction. Running a restaurant means dealing with the occasional difficult customer, but a two-hour ordeal involving a payment dispute, unusual claims, and a customer who Patierno said wanted to fight him and his wife is well outside the normal restaurant experience. Whatever was going on with Scott that morning, it put Patierno, his staff, and other diners in an uncomfortable spot for far too long.
Charges Filed, Bond Set at $650
Scott was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing after a warning, and was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Saturday afternoon. He appeared in bond court Sunday, where a judge set bond at $650. Scott was also ordered to stay away from both the hotel and the restaurant going forward.
Despite everything he went through, Patierno said he holds no grudge. “I forgive him,” Patierno said of the incident. That’s a more generous response than most of us could probably muster after such a lengthy confrontation at our own place of business, and it says something decent about the man running the restaurant, even if the whole situation never should have gotten that far.
This one has a lot of strange details stacked on top of each other: a credit card that reportedly didn’t work, bogus hotel room information, a claim of divine identity, and an attempt to get into a Rolls-Royce that wasn’t his. At the end of the day, Scott left with something considerably more consequential than an unpaid bar tab: two criminal charges and a trip to jail.